Thread by @latimes

Arriving at the ER of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, people are treated in field tents, hallways, cubicles, former administrative offices and ambulance bays. Many wait in the open air to get tested for COVID. Others come for chronic diseases.

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A year ago, MLK was arguably ground zero for hospitals besieged by a brutal COVID-19 winter surge.

Today, it finds itself in a place both strange and familiar during this surge of the incredibly infectious Omicron variant.

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COVID-19 was particularly lethal here last year because of the underlying poor health of the community. But the numbers of patients were offset because non-COVID-19 patients stayed away out of fear of catching the virus. The main crunch was in the ICU.

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This time, hospital officials say, the virus is more widespread but not as deadly. That has flooded the emergency room with people who are not as sick, and whose preexisting conditions have been exacerbated by the virus.

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Before COVID-19, administrators had to convert the ER waiting room into cubicles to treat more patients, and move the waiting room into heated & air-conditioned tents in the ambulance bay. Three more field hospital tents were donated during the pandemic.

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During this surge, most COVID cases are mild enough that patients are tested, given medication & released. But with the sheer number of people coming in, the hospital is full. Like other facilities, it is short-staffed, as COVID infects healthcare workers.
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The result is a kind of fast-moving turnstile for most COVID-19 patients, with long stays mostly for the unvaccinated, who are more acutely ill.

Read more from @joemozingo and see more photos from @francineorr at latimes.com/california/sto…