The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is likely to kill more than 34-hundred homeless people across the U.S., while forcing the hospitalization of more than 21-thousand. Those are some of the findings in a new study by UCLA, Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania. The study also finds that some 72-hundred of the hospitalized homeless patients may require critical care.
The researchers say as many as 12-hundred homeless people could die of COVID-19 in California, with 400 deaths in Los Angeles County alone. And, they say seven-thousand homeless Californians may need to be hospitalized, including 26-hundred in L.A. County, all at a time when the healthcare system is already being swamped. UCLA community health sciences Associate Professor Randall Kuhn says a huge effort will be needed to find emergency shelter for L.A. County's 60-thousand homeless residents.
Some communities like Springfield have already taken action in helping the homeless. Springfield Mayor Dom Sarno in association with the Friends of the Homeless have devised a tent system designed to test the homeless.
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