As California moves to ease COVID restrictions, doctors said the virus is still a deadly threat.
“Two weeks ago, we had ten deaths on one day, and that’s a lot of patients," said Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, Scripps Health's Chief Medical Officer of Acute Care and Clinical Excellence.
“Which is heartbreaking, especially when you see these younger deaths that could’ve been avoided,” Dr. Sharieff said. “So if we can minimize the number of people ever needing the hospital, we will minimize the number of casualties from COVID," Dr. Tseng said. "In terms of science, we've done a lot to help make sure that people don't die from the disease... if they're vaccinated," Dr. Tseng said.Dr. Sharieff said Scripps currently has 126 COVID hospitalizations. More than 80% are unvaccinated.