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Diary From The COVID-19 Frontlines: 'A Steady Drumbeat' Of Cases

Set up for a field hospital at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds. (Chava Sanchez / LAist)

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This is the first installment of "Diary From The COVID-19 Frontlines," an ongoing series of dispatches from health care workers.

In a story last week, we spoke with Dr. Larry Stock, an ER physician at Antelope Valley Hospital, about how his department is preparing for the expected surge in COVID-19 patients.

He told us a field hospital was being set up at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds to help treat COVID patients during the second half of their hospitalization, and how the entire hospital is being transformed into one big ICU for COVID patients:

We checked in with him again this week. He says there’s been fewer people coming into the ER over the last several days, but told us “the cases we are seeing are a steady drumbeat of COVID cases, some moderate and mild, and some severe that require ICU care.”

“We’re in real preparation phase to button up as many things as we can before the surge begins in Los Angeles.”

Here he is in a video dispatch he sent from his car, after a recent shift.

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