For most doctors, there hasn’t been any slowdown of severely ill COVID-19 patients since the pandemic started, however the demographics have shifted from older patients to those who are much younger.
Dr. Donna Varela, director of the Intensive Care Unit at St. Mary Medical Center, said she recently saw a 20-something patient with COVID-19 in full cardiac arrest. The patient, who is still alive, had no previous medical problems.
“I am seeing more patients in their 20s and 30s,” said Varela, who is also part of a critical care council for Catholic hospitals across the country.
In the early days of the pandemic, the focus was largely on the elderly: nursing homes were inundated with outbreaks and deaths. Now, as the country is facing a second wave—or a continuation of the first wave, depending on who is talking—more young people are falling severely ill from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, health officials said.
Los Angeles County Health Director Barbara Ferrer said this week that about half of all new cases in the county are among people between the ages of 18 and 40. This age group now represents about 25% of COVID-19 patients in hospitals compared to about 10% in April.
“From the first wave, from my observation, I noticed our patients were over 60 for the most part, but the second wave, I notice the individuals range from age 20 to the age of 50, so it is a much younger age group,” Varela said.
Since Los Angeles County and Long Beach officials began allowing the reopening of some businesses near the end of May, younger people in particular have been flocking to bars and restaurants and not always following health guidelines, officials said. In addition, thousands of people have been protesting police brutality for weeks, causing concern about the large gatherings.
The governor in late June ordered the closure of all bars in hard-hit counties for at least three weeks, giving health officials time to assess whether this may have contributed to the recent rise in cases.
Health officials say they are also battling a perception that young people are somehow immune to the virus or won’t be as hard-hit by it, which isn’t true: The effects of the disease are wide ranging for people of all ages, doctors say.
COVID-19 can cause long-term effects like lung injury that require oxygen tanks. Some patients have needed facial reconstructive surgery from being on life support for so long, medical officials said.
“COVID does not discriminate if you’re an 18-year-old or you’re a 96-year-old,” Varela said. “If you contract COVID, you can be asymptomatic and not carry the disease, or if you have the full-blown disease, you can develop full lung failure and organ failure and end up on life support.”
Hospitalizations in Los Angeles County are also spiking. As of Wednesday, 2,004 people were hospitalized, 26% of whom were in the ICU and 17% were on ventilators. That is substantially higher than the 1,350 to 1,450 daily hospitalizations seen four weeks ago.
In Long Beach, city officials reported that about 81 people were hospitalized as of Wednesday.
Varela fears a dire scenario for hospitalizations, noting that hospitals are seeing more patients now than they did during the highest points in April. And, now it’s not just the urban centers on the East Coast and West Coast—it’s hospitals all over the country who are running short on ventilators and life support machines.
“In this new wave that we’re having, even in California, hospitals are talking about if we don’t have enough ventilators, who will get life support and who will not?” Varela said. “Many hospitals are forming committees on having to make that difficult decision if that comes to it and we’re very close to it.”
This is with hospitals already having ordered extra ventilators from the impact of the first wave.
Varela said that the hospital saturation is so high, some hospitals are having to send their non-COVID patients to other hospitals, even sending them from San Diego County to Los Angeles County.
She and other health officials are also worried about the upcoming flu season and its effects on hospital capacity. While the regular flu has a known treatment and a vaccine, many people don’t get their flu vaccine, causing more spread.
“The medical community is working on a treatment for COVID-19, that’s going to take time to know what works to treat this disease and how to get a vaccine for it … it’s not going to happen overnight,” Varela said, adding that in the meantime, she urges people to always wear their masks, physically distance and follow health guidelines to avoid spreading the virus to others.