Los Angeles: California hospitals ended the year on “the brink of catastrophe,” a health official said as the pandemic pushed deaths and sickness to staggering levels and some medical centers scrambled to provide oxygen for the critically ill.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Friday that California would begin collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate and upgrade outdated oxygen delivery systems at six Los Angeles area hospitals.
According to a statement from the governor’s office, assessments could begin as early as Saturday.
The collaboration comes as older hospitals are having difficulty maintaining oxygen pressure in aging infrastructure and some were scrambling to locate additional oxygen tanks for discharged patients to take home.
In California, coronavirus infections are racing out of control. Only about half of the Americans who volunteered to test COVID-19 vaccines got the real thing. Now experts debate whether all volunteers should.
