Teams of military doctors and nurses are deploying to multiple California hospitals to aid an increasingly overwhelmed health care system.
The Air Force, at California’s request, has assigned 160 doctors, nurses and other health care specialists to the state.
Some teams deployed Thursday, including 20 people each to Eisenhower Health Hospital in Riverside County and Adventist Health Lodi Memorial Hospital in San Joaquin County.
Both hospitals had beds available for extra patients, but they did not have the staff to care for them. It’s highlighting a growing problem across the state as coronavirus cases increase.
Coronavirus hospitalizations decreased slightly on Wednesday. But they have increased 68% in the past month.
On Thursday California reported its largest two-day total of confirmed cases at nearly 20,000.
There also were 258 additional deaths in 48 hours and more than 8,000 people with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 have been hospitalized.