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The availability of intensive care unit beds throughout Southern California hit 0% last week, and officials warned that conditions in hospitals were expected to erode further if the coronavirus continued to spread unchecked.

An ICU, or intensive care unit, is a specialized hospital department that cares for people in the most critical health situations, such as those with life-threatening injuries or severe illnesses. ICUs are equipped with specialized equipment, such as ventilators.

Most important, ICUs are staffed with highly trained nurses and physicians who provide round-the-clock care to their patients — checking their breathing, blood pressure, fluids and other vital signs. Dr. Shruti Gohil, an infectious disease specialist at UCI Health, said there was a 1-to-1 ratio of nurses to patients in ICUs.

Here are images from area hospitals where healthcare workers are laboring, treating a flood of COVID-19 patients.

A hospital gurney streaks by, pushed by men wearing masks.
Registered Nurse April Lu, 31, is working with a non covid patient Providence Holly Cross Medical Center
Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times
A woman in a mask helps another woman to put on protective headgear.
A nurse gets help putting on her personal protective equipment before heading into a negative pressure room at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Dr. Leroy Pascal, in protect headgear, gestures to respiratory therapists helping a COVID-19 patient.
Emergency department medical director Dr. Leroy Pascal, in white mask, and respiratory therapists scramble to attend to a COVID-19 patient at Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Hospital staff in protective masks, gowns and face shields work on a person lying on a hospital bed.
A nurse helps a doctor, tying up his medical gown. Other nurses work with a patient on a bed.
ER nurse Jennifer Caspary helps Dr. Leroy Pascal with his protective gear on Dec. 17 at Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
SANTA MONICA, CA - DECEMBER 15: A patient surved a code blue and then was rushed to ICU to be intubated and be placed on a ventalator inside Providence Saint John's Health Center on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020 in Santa Monica, CA. They have expanded their ICU capacity. They are not currently over capacity at the moment. They have had 19 covid positive cases and they have 23 beds at this moment. The numbers are constantly is shiflting. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
A patient is rushed to intensive care to be intubated and placed on a ventilator at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Michelle Goldson, RN works inside the ICU at Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital during the latest surge.
Michelle Goldson, RN works inside the ICU at Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital during the latest surge. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)
A man, connected to various monitors, leans back on pillows in a hospital bed. A nurse stands nearby.
A nurse checks on COVID-19 patient Jose Mariscal, 66, in the ICU at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Victorville, CA - December 17:
Jennifer Caspary, ER incharge-nurse left, and Dr. Leroy Pascal, emergency department medical director, attend to a COVID-19 patient at Desert Valley Hospital. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Hospital staff in protective gear move a gurney and monitors.
A closeup of a nurse in a respirator mask.
Michelle Goldson, RN, in the ICU at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
A nurse checks a monitor next to a patient who has an oxygen tube.
Nurse Jeanette Pimentel checks on Pedro Luera, 68, who was airlifted from El Centro, Calif., to Paradise Valley Hospital in National City. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Jessica M. Pasko has been writing professionally for almost two decades. She cut her teeth in journalism as a reporter for the Associated Press in her native Albany, New York, where she covered everything...