Louisiana saw by far its largest jump in total cases and new COVID-19 related deaths in a 24 hour period yesterday, evidence that the state has yet to begin flattening the curve.
1,212 new positive tests were reported and 54 deaths occurred in just a 24 hour period from Monday to Tuesday. Governor John Bel Edwards says this should be a wake-up call for those who haven’t been socially distancing.
“If for some reason it did not register with you before today, we can’t do anything about what happened or didn’t happen yesterday but you can start right now,” said Edwards.
Edwards adds that the state has doubled its total number of cases and use of ventilators since March 26th.
The new numbers put the state above 5,000 total cases. Edwards says the jump in cases and deaths is alarming.
“This still is going to get worse before it gets better, we don’t know how much worse, but we do know that we can control, to some degree, how much worse it gets,” said Edwards.
The New Orleans region is now on pace to run out of ventilators by April 4th, and hospital beds by April 7th.
The Governor says these numbers are likely the result of infections that occurred before the statewide stay at home order last Monday, so there may be some good news coming soon.
“If it is going to have an impact on reducing the rate of growth in these cases then we would actually start to see that in the next could of days,” said Edwards.
Comments