A new surge at a Santa Monica ICU

Two months ago at Providence Saint John’s Health Center, Dr. Morris Grabie stood at a makeshift plastic wall in the intensive care unit and prayed. "Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam," he began in Hebrew, the sterile divider behind him sealing off the patients with Covid-19 from the uninfected. "Blessed are you, Adonai our God, sovereign of all, who has kept us alive, sustained us and brought us to this season." Around the physician at the hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., a small army in scrubs — doctors, nurses, technicians — bowed their heads, bearing witness to what seemed to be the beginning of the end of the pandemic.