Emergency responders say the latest respiratory viruses are straining the entire emergency response system, flooding dispatch centers and impacting ambulance response times.
“We’re receiving hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of calls every day and were transporting as a result of those calls, were transporting somewhere on the order of about 270 patients a day which is up considerably from the peak days we had a year ago,” said Steve Hill of the Contra Costa County Fire District.
“Unfortunately a lot of the transports that we are making right now are not really critical emergency medical situations,” said Hill. The county’s EMS medical director says flu-like illnesses make up nearly 20% of their call volume — a nearly 500% increase compared to this time last year.Local
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