2,700 new COVID-19 positive tests have been reported in Louisiana today, more than twice the number we saw yesterday, but Governor Edwards is cautioning that today’s spike is more a result of a logjam of tests from the last week or more all finally being reported from private labs. Edwards say it is not evidence that the stay at home order is failing.
51,000 tests have now been conducted in Louisiana, 47,000 of them by private labs.
Ochsner Health chief Warner Thomas says they continue to increase the number of intensive care beds to keep up with the surge in COVID-19 patients. Thomas says adding to the strain is that COVID-19 patients spend over a week in the I-C-U
Thomas says 85-percent of their COVID patients in the ICU are on ventilators.
A nurse at New Orleans East Hospital becomes the state’s first healthcare worker to die after testing positive for COVID-19. Larrice Anderson passed away on Wednesday. Executive Director of the Louisiana State Nurse’s Association Thea Ducrow says the needs of healthcare workers are clear.
Anderson’s employer released a statement remembering the fallen nurse as “a mother, friend, and a caring nurse.”
If life wasn’t already difficult enough, Colorado State University Hurricane researchers predict an active 2020 hurricane season. C-S-U forecaster Jhordanne Jones says the tropical Atlantic is also somewhat warmer than normal right now…
An average hurricane season produces 12 named storms, but Jones says their forecast calls for 16.