US hospital treating COVID-19 patients in car park as crisis reaches breaking point

A horrifying new photo has shown that America is well and truly losing its coronavirus war. And the crisis is about to get much worse.

A desperate US hospital brought to its knees by the COVID-19 crisis has resorted to treating sick patients in a car park, proving just how fraught the emergency has become.

It’s no secret America has spectacularly failed to contain the public health disaster, with Johns Hopkins University figures revealing the nation is leading the world when it comes to grim coronavirus statistics.

So far, the US has recorded 15,089,621 virus cases and 285,643 deaths – figures that are much worse than those seen in hard-hit, developing nations like India and Brazil.

There has been a more than 24 per cent increase in new cases across America in the past week alone, and the average daily death toll has soared to a tragic 2200.

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This world map shows just how dire the coronavirus crisis is becoming in the US. Picture: Johns Hopkins University

But a series of viral photos of Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, has truly brought home the extent of the nightmare, after the hospital was forced to convert two floors of its car park to a makeshift treatment site to keep up with the influx of virus patients.

A photo of the improvised facility was first shared on Twitter by intensive care unit doctor Jacob Keeperman in November, when he revealed there had been “5 deaths in the last 32 hours”.

The post went viral – but predictably, some accused the photo of being fake, with outgoing President Donald Trump himself retweeting one of those allegations.

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President Trump retweeted a false claim that this image was ‘fake’. Picture: Jacob Keeperman/Twitter

Dr Keeperman later told CNN he was “disgusted” by the false accusation shared by Mr Trump and urged government officials and all Americans to take the “humanitarian crisis” seriously.

“Things are tough. People are sick. People from all walks of life, of all ages, are getting afflicted by COVID-19,” he said.

“We are getting close to a breaking point.”

Circular evolution of a tweet that originated from an emergency medicine doctor... pic.twitter.com/eWzFz26pHl

— sherpes (@sherpes) December 1, 2020

In fact, in the past three weeks, the site has treated 265 patients as cases continue to surge in the wake of the Thanksgiving holiday, and a new, televised investigation by CBS News has also laid bare the extent of the hospital’s “crisis mode”, as have a series of new photos taken inside the centre.

“Nobody who has gone into medicine ever thought they would be providing care in a parking garage,” Dr Keeperman told CBS this week.

“Would any hospital want to show that they are operating out of a parking garage if it wasn’t real? People’s loved ones are dying every day.”

And nursing manager Janet Baum also told CBS she had never before seen anything like the current devastation.

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Medics have since treated 265 patients in the carpark. Picture: Lucia Starbuck/KUNR Public Radio/Report for America/Twitter

“Never in my wildest nightmares would I ever have thought that we would ever see something that would be killing this many people,” she said.

Sadly, while the Renown facility might seem like an extreme example, experts have warned the coronavirus disaster will only get worse in the weeks ahead as temperatures plummet and Americans ignore public health advice and gather together over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

Dr David Thrasher, a pulmonologist and friend of former Alabama state senator Larry Dixon who died from coronavirus last week, told AP the next four months would bring “more devastation and catastrophic problems with public health” than had been seen since 1918,

while infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci recently warned the coming weeks would likely bring “a surge upon a surge” of new cases.

‘REALLY DANGEROUS SITUATION’

Infectious Diseases Specialist and Associate Professor at the Australian National University Sanjaya Senanayake told news.com.au America was now battling a perfect storm of “terrible” factors that could work together to wreak havoc.

“It is a really dangerous situation in America right now … and things are getting worse in the US, not better,” he said.

Prof Senanayake said America’s seven-day rolling average had almost doubled in around a month following Thanksgiving and that Christmas could blow the situation out further.

And he said while the pandemic didn’t seem to worsen during the Australian winter, there were fears the far harsher northern hemisphere winter might prove disastrous as people congregate indoors – where the virus is more easily spread – in groups to escape the elements.

“Another issue in the US of course is messaging – in places like Australia, we had our senior health officials saying the same things as our politicians on both the federal and state levels, so the public was listening to a united message, which I believe makes it far easier to accept,” Prof Senanayake said.

“In the US, that hasn’t been happening, and I suspect it may remain that way for the next six weeks or so until the new president takes over.”

Prof Senanayake said Australia’s united political messaging and swift, decisive action had helped to contain the spread of COVID-19 early on and avoid America’s fate.

The fact that Australia is an isolated island without easily-crossed borders was also a major strength, as was our milder climate and the public’s adherence to social distancing.