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National Guard activated to help hospitals in rural California amid COVID surge

A National Guard sergeant enters a health care facility in 2020 in Hollywood.(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The California National Guard has dispatched medical teams to three beleaguered hospitals in Northern California and the Central Valley, where exhausted healthcare workers are weathering another surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Teams of 16 people have been deployed to assist healthcare staffs at Memorial Hospital and Mercy Hospital Southwest in Bakersfield and Mercy Medical Center Redding, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Shiroma, a California National Guard spokesman.

Another Bakersfield hospital, Adventist Health, has requested help from the National Guard, and a 14-person team is expected to arrive Saturday, said Daniel Wolcott, president of Adventist Health Kern County.

“We still need more nursing and clinical support,” he added.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.