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California's new virus message: 'Don't share your air'

Virus Outbreak California
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California’s health care system is in the throes of a coronavirus crisis stemming from ill-advised Thanksgiving gatherings.

Top executives from California’s largest hospital systems put out a “clarion and desperate call” for residents to avoid a holiday repeat they said would overwhelm the most populous state’s medical system.

Increasingly exhausted staff, many pressed into service outside their normal duties, are now attending to virus patients stacked up in hallways, conference rooms, even a gift shop.

Officials from Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health and Sutter Health offered what they called a “prescription” for Californians to slow the virus spread, a marketing effort dubbed “Don’t share your air.”