'Exhausted': In rural California, the unvaccinated and ill overwhelm hospital staff
by Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times
Feb 10, 2022
4 minutes
VICTORVILLE, Calif. — The COVID-19 patients slumped in chairs in a hallway outside the emergency room of the Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville. There were no gurneys for them, no beds and no rooms.
Doctors and nurses dashed back and forth from the ER to treat them, dodging one another and medical equipment being wheeled about.
"This is not ideal for us," said emergency room Dr. Leroy Pascal. "But we're having to see patients wherever we can."
Coronavirus transmission rates have been dropping in California in recent weeks, a sign that the surge spawned by the omicron is easing.
But while the pandemic has been a series
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