INFECTIONS & HOSPITALIZATIONS RISE - Louisiana now ranks number 1 in per Capita-Covid-19 cases. Governor John Bel Edwards has reported more than 101,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. That makes Louisiana the 12th state with at least 100,000 cases. Louisiana is the least populous of those states. During his press conference yesterday, Edwards said the state is experiencing a major emergency and expressed concerns about the impact Covid-19 is having on area hospitals.
"What worries me most is the toll that the lastest resurgence is taking on our capacity to deliver healthcare, " Edwards said. "And the impact that that's having on our healthcare professionals, our doctors, and nurses, and respiratory therapists, and all the way down to EMTs and paramedics and everybody in between."
Hospital officials in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas say the number of Covid-19 patients is taxing their resources. Dr. Amanda Logue, chief medical officer at Lafayette General Medical Center, says half the intensive care patients and one third-of all other patients there have COVID-19.
"We will do all emergency surgeries that are necessary we certainly have the capacity for that and will continue to do that," Logue explained. "But our hospitals are full and our ICU is full."
Dr. Logue also explained that for July Lafayette General Medical Center had to decline 87 percent of requested patient transfers.
"In the last month we've had to transfer patients out of our health system to Rapides, Baton Rouge, North Louisiana, even as far as Mississippi as we didn't have any space to take care of them," Logue said."
Governor Edwards signed an order extending his current mask mandate and Phase 2 restrictions on businesses until at least Aug. 7th. Edwards also expressed concerns that because of daily reports, people may not take the rising number of Covid-19 infections and deaths seriously.
Edwards said "I just do hope that people take events very seriously and that it serves as a reality check that we are in fact in a public health emergency,"
