California Sends Dozens Of Firefighter Paramedics, EMTs To Help Hospitals Inundated With COVID-19 Patients
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — As cases of COVID-19 show no signs of abating, the state's Mutual Aid System is sending fire and rescue paramedics and EMTs to assist in emergency rooms into the hardest-hit hospitals.
The firefighter paramedics and EMT's will be sent on 14-day deployments to help in emergency rooms and other vital medical areas, primarily in the Southern California area. These firefighters are typically sent out in response to wildfires, floods and other natural disasters.
Olive View Medical Center and Huntington Memorial in Pasadena will each receive seven of these personnel. Nine more will be sent to Mission Community, Providence St. John's, and Harbor-UCLA medical Center in Los Angeles County and UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange County. Ten more will be sent to the Inland Empire – half to Riverside County's Doctors Hospital, and the rest to Barstow Community Hospital and Loma Linda Medical Center in San Bernardino County.
Adventist Bakersfield in Kern County will also be sent 10 of these paramedics and EMTs.
California currently has a 15% positivity rate and 0% ICU availability for all the locations being sent extra medical personnel.
