Hahn Thanks Governor for Request for 500 Medical Personnel, Calls for Additional Support

SAN PEDRO—Today, LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, Jan 6, has responded to a request from the California Office of Emergency Services or Cal OES to the federal government for 500 medical personnel to relieve hospitals during the COVID-19 surge. Cal OES’s request comes after Supervisor Hahn urged State to work to secure the USNS Mercy hospital ship and news that the hospital ship is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance.

“Our plea for help has been heard. I appreciate and support Governor Newsom and Cal OES’s request to the federal government for 500 medical personnel to help our overwhelmed hospitals. The situation is dire statewide, but nowhere is this help more desperately needed than here in LA County. If the federal government fulfills this request, I urge that every medical personnel that can be spared be sent to our hospitals in LA County.

I continue to question the wisdom of dry-docking a hospital ship during a pandemic. But with the USNS Mercy unavailable, the Department of Defense should prepare to send the USNS Comfort hospital ship currently stationed in Virginia to Los Angeles County with medical personnel to provide backup for our strained hospital system. We have to plan for the very real possibility that this surge gets much worse in coming weeks and months.

Our plea for help has been heard. We need it to be answered.”