State data show that ambulances during the week before Thanksgiving handled 780 calls — the highest since the start of the pandemic.
Paramedics thought the pandemic would mean emergency crews racing to help patients in respiratory distress.
EMS traffic was slow in the spring. But in the fall, the second COVID surge boosted emergency runs and has now pumped up trips between hospitals to create space for those critically ill with COVID-19.
“You would sit around for a long time without calls coming in, because everyone was staying in — everyone was kind of scared of doing stuff,” paramedic Devin Orchard said Wednesday after bringing a patient to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. Continue reading.