'It's Bad': Hospital Over Capacity, And Nurses Have Coronavirus

ACROSS AMERICA — The first approved coronavirus vaccine has been given to health care workers across the nation. But at one small-town hospital in California, it couldn't come before the crisis not only created an overflow of patients but also dwindled the nursing staff.

"It's bad," a nurse at Barstow Community Hospital told ABC-7 Los Angeles.

Barstow is normally a 30-bed facility but is treating 54 patients, including 47 who had the virus as of earlier this week. There are 16 patients in an intensive care unit that only has four regular beds.

"We are totally overwhelmed and about to collapse," the nurse said. "We need more help, and we're not getting it."

The nurse told the news station the situation is dire at the hospital, some 115 miles inland from Los Angeles. Several nurses are ill after testing positive for the coronavirus, and the others are physically and emotionally drained.

The Latest

As the vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech continues to roll out to hospitals across the United States, the Trump administration is working on securing more doses by the middle of 2021, according to a report from The New York Times.

Pfizer has already agreed to provide the country 100 million doses, enough for 50 million people, by the end of March. The Times reports the White House is trying to get doses for another 50 millions Americans by the end of June, but still that would only be enough for less than half the country.

Not all who have taken the vaccine are reporting positive results, however.

Health officials in Alaska reported a health care worker had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine within 10 minutes of receiving a shot, according to reporting from The Associated Press.

U.S. health authorities warned doctors to be on the lookout for rare allergic reactions when they rolled out the first vaccine, made by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. Britain had reported a few similar allergic reactions a week earlier.

The Juneau health worker began feeling flushed and short of breath on Tuesday, Dr. Lindy Jones, the emergency room medical director at Bartlett Regional Hospital, told the AP. She was treated with epinephrine and other medicines for what officials ultimately determined was anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction. She was kept overnight but has recovered.

Just as the Pfizer vaccine has begun reaching hospitals in all 50 states, approval for a second could be on the horizon.

A panel of experts from the Food and Drug Administration is expected to meet and vote Thursday to approve the emergency use of the vaccine developed by Moderna, according to a report from The Associated Press. Like the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Moderna has said clinical trials have shown its vaccine to be about 95 percent effective.

An FDA committee has already said the Moderna vaccine is "highly protective" against the virus, according to The New York Times.

“This is great news, as this now brings us to two products with high levels of efficacy,” Rupali Limaye, an associate scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the Times.

The Moderna vaccine uses the same technology as Pfizer-BioNTech's and showed similarly strong protection against COVID-19, the AP reported, but it is easier to handle because it does not need to be kept in the deep freeze at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 Celsius).

The FDA on Tuesday authorized the first-ever take-home coronavirus test that can be used without a prescription, according to NPR and other reports. The test, which will cost $30 and be ready by January, will offer immediate results, NPR reported.

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris should receive the vaccine as soon as possible for "security reasons," says Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, Fauci weighed in on the vaccine developments Tuesday morning in an interview with "Good Morning America."

"For security reasons, I really feel strongly that we should get them vaccinated as soon as we possibly can," he said.

The word from the nation's capital is that approval on a second coronavirus relief bill is imminent. Reports from The Associated Press and others are that the package would be for $900 billion, and include one-time stimulus payments of $600 or $700 to all Americans. In addition, those unemployed as a result of virus restrictions would get an additional $300 a week.

Leaders from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill have said they will not adjourn for the year until an agreement is in.

Coronavirus case counts remain high nationwide. California reported a "massive" one-day spike in cases on Wednesday, according to a KRON 4 News report. The state had at least 53,711 confirmed new cases and 293 new deaths reported in the 24-hour period from Tuesday morning to Wednesday morning.

But a noticeable decline in new numbers has taken place in a few Midwestern states.

States including Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Nebraska have seen decreases in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 over the past couple of weeks, according to an Associated Press report. All, however, are still experiencing an alarming number of deaths and hospitalizations because of the earlier surge of cases.

A significant spike has occurred in Tennessee, where data from The Washington Post shows cases have jumped a staggering 68 percent in one week.

Newest Numbers

At least 2,938 new coronavirus deaths and 193,390 new daily cases were reported in the United States on Tuesday, according to a Washington Post database. Over the past seven days, the United States has averaged more than 216,000 cases each day.

As of Wednesday, 47 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

More than 16.7 million people in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Wednesday afternoon, and more than 305,200 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or Washington Post.

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