20 Federal healthcare workers deployed to Riverside County to help overwhelmed hospitals

On Friday Riverside County announced that the Department of Defense deployed a team of 20 federal military medical personnel to the Riverside University Health System Medical Center in Moreno Valley to assist with the region's overwhelmed hospitals.

"They’re extremely busy, specifically with COVID-19 patients and they’re all going through this internal surge and what that means is that they’re treating patients in other parts of the hospital above and beyond their normal licensed capacity," said Riverside County Department of Public Health spokesperson, Brooke Federico.

Many are dealing with record hospitalizations. On Wednesday, January 7 the county continued its trend of shattering records, reporting 1,634 hospitalizations and 364 patients being treated in the ICU.

"What this team will do is it will allow us to treat more patients," said Federico.

The federal team arrived on Thursday and included nurses, respiratory therapists and physician assistants, according to the county.

"What this means is when we add more capacity at this central hospital, that other hospitals may have a need on any given day to be able to transfer patients to this hospital because now we have greater capacity at that hospital," said Federico.

There is no clear timeline for how long the federal team will be deployed in Moreno Valley.

"Often times when we receive these types of resources it's while the need exists or until there is a greater need in another area," said Federico.

The announcement was made just one day after The State of California Emergency Medical Services Authority worked with the Riverside County Emergency Management Department to bring oxygen as local hospitals are in need.