As coronavirus infections soar in Houston, the city’s paramedics say they are facing hour-long wait times when transferring patients from the ambulance to the hospital. “The longer it takes us to service those critical calls, it is going to cost us lives,” he told the news station. “Our system is getting strained.”Coronavirus cases have skyrocketed in Texas since the beginning of the month, with Houston emerging as the state’s epicenter. At least 560 calls for service resulted in wait times of an hour or more during that period, the fire chief said. Contributing to the bottleneck, nearly 200 firefighters were in quarantine and more than 50 had tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Peña.

Source: Washington Post June 27, 2020 11:46 UTC