SAN DIEGO — COVID infections are spreading faster than ever due to the more contagious omicron variant which is overwhelming emergency rooms across San Diego.
"It’s a pretty desperate situation right now in emergency rooms of many of the hospitals," said Jeff Behm, managing director of Falck San Diego, the city’s emergency services contractor. "Our volume alone since Christmas has gone up 30%. We associate that with COVID. People are getting sick and going to hospital and calling 911."
Patients are having to wait even longer.
"Our delays were averaging at 90 minutes. It has doubled since COVID [and] has grown since then. There are times we are sitting with a patient for three hours and that’s not acceptable to run an EMS system, especially in San Diego," said Behm.
He is urging the community to get vaccinated and boostered, social distance or stay isolated if possible, but most of all, if you are sick and it’s not an emergency to stay patient.
"We will get soon to you as soon as we can. It is a triage and life-threatening emergencies are first. I foresee where we are continuing and potentially getting worse," said Behm.
He said the good news is they have mutual aid with the San Diego Fire Department to ensure they have backup when people call in for emergencies.
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