quote:

The United States has entered the new year with record numbers of Americans hospitalized with coronavirus, straining a health care system bracing for a post-holidays surge that has the potential to further stretch hospitals.

At least 128,000 COVID patients were hospitalized nationwide as of Monday, eclipsing the record set in the last week of 2020. Facilities across the West and South are especially burdened.

Los Angeles County has been so overwhelmed it is running out of oxygen, with ambulance crews instructed to use oxygen only for their worst-case patients. Crews were told not bring patients to the hospital if they have little hope of survival and to treat and declare such patients dead on the scene to preserve hospital capacity. Several Los Angeles hospitals have turned away ambulance traffic in recent days because they can’t provide the air flow needed to treat patients.

Arizona, once heralded for turning the corner after a summer surge, now has the nation’s highest rate of coronavirus hospitalizations. In the Atlanta area, nearly every major hospital is nearly full, prompting state officials to reopen a field hospital for the third time.