Emergency Room At Kaiser's Downey Medical Center No Longer Accepting Patients, Other Facilities May Also Go On Diversion

By CBSLA Staff, CBS Los Angeles:

DOWNEY (CBSLA) — Kaiser Permanente says its Downey emergency room is going on diversion because it has been overwhelmed with COVID-19 and flu patients.

Many emergency rooms are at capacity due to the latest surge of both flu and COVID-19 patients in Los Angeles County, which reported its highest number of new cases since the pandemic started – 37,215 new cases on Thursday. This latest wave of infections appears to be driven by the Omicron variant, which experts say is highly contagious even for people who have been fully vaccinated and boosted.

Kaiser this week put its Downey Medical Center on diversion, which means the facility will not accept new emergency room patients, who must be taken to get care at other hospitals.

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