Ochsner Health CEO Warner Thomas said according to a tracking system they use for non-hospitalized patients he doesn’t see COVID case numbers letting up anytime soon. The system allows them to stay in contact with their COVID-positive patients who are recovering at home to see if their symptoms worsen, and they need to be admitted.
“But that’s been a very good indicator of hospitalization down the road that that symptom tracker continues to escalate,” said Thomas.
In the last week, Ochsner said their COVID hospitalizations increased by 73-percent.
With the statewide mask mandate back in effect, when asked if hospitals are seeing a difference yet Thomas said it’s still too early to tell and, in the past, their symptom tracking system has shown face mask usage curbs case numbers.
“That has been an early indicator previously that we’re going to see a downturn or a plateauing in cases. That’s usually the first place we see it. We have not seen that yet,” said Thomas.
Director of Infection Control and Prevention at Ochsner Doctor Katherine Baumgarten said while research and previous use of face masking are proven methods to reduce infection rates, even with the mandate back in effect some are not getting the message of the dire situation we find ourselves in with the fourth surge.
“We need people to mask right now. I still see when I’m out and about that people are not really adhering to the masking mandate. I saw it last night and we need that to happen now,” said Baumgarten.
On Thursday the Louisiana Department of Health reported the highest number of COVID hospitalizations to date of 2,350, eclipsing Wednesday and Tuesday’s all-time daily high totals.
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