EMERGENCY IN CALIF. Refrigerated trucks on standby, ready to store the dead and mortuaries are turning away bereaved families

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Ambulances were being forced to wait in bays as long as eight hours before they could transfer patients inside hospitals — and in some cases, doctors were treating patients inside ambulances, said Cathy Chidester, director of Los Angeles County’s Emergency Medical Services Agency.

Meanwhile, refrigerated trucks were on standby, ready to store the dead and mortuaries are turning away bereaved families because they’re running out of space.

A spike in virus cases among the homeless population around Los Angeles is overstretching the services system, according to a report Sunday in the Los Angeles Times. After averaging about 60 new cases each week through the fall, infections of homeless people doubled in the week after Thanksgiving and have since continued to climb sharply, the Times said. County public health officials reported 547 new cases among homeless residents between Dec. 22 and 29.

A Los Angeles Fire Department captain died Friday from complications due to COVID-19, Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas announced. Capt. George Roque, 57, had been with the department for more than two decades and is survived by his wife and four children. He’s the second LA firefighter known to die from the virus.

Garcetti said the virus surge is infecting a new person every six seconds in Los Angeles County, which should be a warning even for places with less population density.