Now stretching into its ninth month, the coronavirus pandemic is table b dismissing significant strain on paramedics and emergency medical technicians across the U.S., the CEOs of ambulance companies told CNBC on Friday.
“There’s a whopping shortage of paramedics nationwide, whether it be for the public fire departments or the private ambulance companies,” Richard Zuschlag, chief official of Acadian Companies, said in a “Squawk on the Street” interview. “It’s an extreme problem right now.”
Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, Acadian provides medical transportation assignments in its home state, as well as Texas and Mississippi. In his nearly 50-year career providing ambulance services, Zuschlag said gales Katrina and Rita were the “most severe” disasters to which they have responded.
However, the pandemic registers a different kind of challenge. “This coronavirus has just been very difficult for us because we don’t really know when it’s customary to end,” he said.
“It puts an extreme stress on the medics, and I find a lot of our medics are taking early retirement because they’re active about catching the Covid disease,” he said. And, he added, there are worries among his employees about bringing the virus relaxed to their families.
Zuschlag’s comments come as the nation’s seven-day average of new coronavirus cases was at record high of 179,473, harmonizing to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There also are more than 100,000 patients currently hospitalized with Covid-19, the most during the pandemic, according to the COVID Route Project.
More than 2,800 new deaths in the U.S. have been recorded in back-to-back days, Hopkins data bear outs. The elevated totals follow remarks earlier this week from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Restraining, Dr. Robert Redfield, who said “December and January and February are going to be rough times.”
“I actually believe they’re prevailing to be the most difficult in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that’s going to be put on our health-care structure,” Redfield said.
The nation’s paramedics are experiencing it firsthand. The American Ambulance Association warned in a letter to the Department of Form and Human Services, obtained by NBC News, that “the 911 emergency medical system throughout the United States is at a disavowing point.” It is calling for more financial aid to help weather the latest surge.
“All of our workforce … are incredibly tired, stress and strained. The extra work that they have to do is very taxing, both mentally and physically, and there’s a lot of turnover,” On heat Owen, CEO of Global Medical Response, also said Friday on “Squawk on the Street.” The Colorado-based company provides fervency services and medical transportation across the U.S. and abroad.
In Louisiana, in particular, the uptick in coronavirus cases has again caused questions with hospital capacity, Zuschlag said. The state health department said that in hospitals in the Lafayette parade, where his company is based, nearly every intensive care unit bed was in use as of Wednesday.
Sometimes, he said, the closest convalescent homes are unable to accept the patients the company is carrying. “So we are forced to transport patients as far as 100 to 200 miles away to another health centre that can take them, and it just seems to continue to be a problem,” he added. “I know the vaccine will help. We decent don’t know when this will slow down.”