Military medical teams arrive to help 2 LA hospitals amid rise in COVID-19 cases
Military medical teams are getting ready to help at two Los Angeles County hospitals Monday as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the region.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Military medical teams are getting ready to help at two Los Angeles County hospitals Monday as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the region.
The Department of Defense has sent Air Force military medical teams to Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Teams are expected to be fully operational by Monday and will be used to support hospital care units amid growing COVID-19 hospitalizations.
L.A. County Department of Public Health on Sunday reported 2,033 confirmed cases are currently hospitalized and 31% of the cases are in the intensive care unit. But officials said Sunday's numbers were incomplete "due to data from six non-reporting hospitals" not being included in the update.
The arrival of the medical teams comes after federal doctors and nurses arrived to help in Riverside County just two weeks ago. The U.S. Air Force sent a 21-person team of medical personnel to Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage to assist with the hospital's staffing shortage.
The teams are typically deployed for 30 days.
In a letter to state emergency directors and agencies, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Pete Gaynor wrote that more help is urgently needed in California and four other states. FEMA support includes medical supplies, funding and technical assistance.
