Ambulances wait hours to offload patients as Santa Clara County hospitals burdened with soaring COVID-19 cases

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- The novel coronavirus pandemic is causing massive wait-times at Santa Clara County hospitals.

UPDATE: Ambulances wait more than 7 hours outside Santa Clara County hospitals as COVID-19 cases soar

The Santa Clara Public Health department says "on several occasions over the past week," ambulances have waited up to seven hours to get a patient into the emergency department. The extended wait times are "largely due to the significant volume of patients at hospitals, which have been heavily affected by the increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations."

While ambulances wait, EMTs are unable to respond to other emergencies.

RELATED: 44 emergency staff at Kaiser Permanente San Jose infected with COVID-19, officials confirm

Dozens of staff members at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center's emergency department have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past week and hospital officials say an inflatable costume may be the cause.

The fire department has served as a backup six times because so many ambulances "were tied up at hospital emergency departments."

The county is very concerned about the impact COVID-19 is having in the hospitals and in a statement to ABC7 News, the health department said, "this strain on hospitals affects patients with all types of needs: trauma care from accidents, heart attacks, strokes, and the many other reasons-including COVID-19-that any resident might on a moment's notice need emergency transport and access to hospital-level care."

On Saturday, 689 people were hospitalized in the county.

The county reported 887 new COVID-19 cases from the past few days. 10% of all ICU beds are available within the county, health officials tweeted on Sunday.

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