LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — As the coronavirus continues to surge landing thousands of people in the hospital for long term care, KTNV sister station KABC has reported that Los Angeles Health officials have directed paramedics in Southern California not to transport certain patients with little chance of survival to the hospital.
Several ambulance companies in Clark County told 13 Action News that there has been no indication they would be asked to do the same despite hospitalizations rising in the Las Vegas valley.
Southern Hills Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dominic Martinello said new therapies like monoclonal antibody therapy have helped keep hospital capacity at his facility manageable.
"We don't know what it is going to look like in a week, two weeks, three weeks," he said, "what we do every day is we get together we meet we look at our resources, our bed availability, and we do the best we can to continue serving the community."
Martinello said the new therapies have allowed them to treat patients in a way that gets them out of the hospital faster freeing space for new patients, but the treatments can't keep capacities manageable on their own.
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He has urged people to continue using best practices to stem the virus's spread including mask wearing, social distancing, and good hygiene.
The Southern Nevada Health District has announced they will provide an update on vaccine distribution Wednesday afternoon.
The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services said 34,540 vaccines have been distributed as of Sunday out of the nearly 143,000 received from the federal government.
SNHD officials are expected to address their distribution effort at 1 p.m.
