Mary Bird Perkins TGMC Cancer Center Receives Covid-19 Relief Grant To Expand Technology Services
July 23, 2020
Tropical Storm Hanna forms in the Gulf; Texas landfall likely on Saturday
July 23, 2020
During the state coronavirus briefing today, Gov. John Bel Edwards took the time to address misinformation that’s being spread about the Louisiana Department of Health’s (LDH) COVID-19 numbers.
“Unfortunately, it appears that there’s a deliberate misinformation campaign, claiming that the state is inflating cases by counting people multiple times if they take multiple tests,” he said. “And that just isn’t the case.”
Edwards echoed the same sentiments as Dr. Alexander Billioux, an LDH official who addressed the concerns last week — following the claim by the Red River Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness that the health agency reported new cases for the same positive individuals.
“A case refers to a specific individual, whether that individual tested positive once, twice, three times or whatever,” Edwards explained. “And so I don’t want anybody to believe that the data is inaccurate or being manipulated.”
He continued: “And it is grossly irresponsible for people to be spreading misinformation about that to try to minimize how serious this situation is.”
If COVID-19 is present in a community, it’s going to show up in testing first, hospitalizations second and deaths third, Edwards noted. “There’s no way the hospitalizations are going up and the deaths are going up, and the cases aren’t going up with them; it just doesn’t make sense,” he added.
Edwards asked for those spreading the misinformation to stop, but “nobody should be paying attention to what any of those individuals are saying.”
Multiple redundant systems have been put in place to “scrub the data” and make sure it’s accurate and timely, the governor said, “and we are sharing it with the public in a way so that we can be as transparent as possible.”
The governor also touched on the increasing hospitalizations all across Louisiana, adding that the resurgence of cases has taken a toll on the state’s capacity to deliver health care and impacting medical professionals. The biggest challenge is staffing, Edwards noted, because other states aren’t able to provide staffing right now — as they are also dealing with the virus. Louisiana officials are working with the federal government to get more medical personnel, he said.
Amanda Logue, Senior Vice President/Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Lafayette General Health and Dr. Henry Kaufman, CMO of Lafayette-based Our Lady of Lourdes, shared what their respective hospitals are currently facing, such as the rising number of coronavirus patients, postponing or cancelling elective surgeries, running low on patient space, and the staff’s fatigue, among other challenges.
Logue said that Lafayette General Medical Center had 15 COVID-19 patients on May 27, and yesterday morning, the hospital had 105. “In our…five acute hospital system, we have had 143 COVID patients,” she added. “That number was only 20 just six weeks ago.”
“So we’re certainly seeing a rapid increase in community spread of COVID. But what that leads to is hospitalizations that follow the community spread,” she continued. “And that is part of our plea to Acadiana today and elsewhere, is to understand the impact of widespread community outbreaks leads to impacts into the health system.”
When Edwards announced the statewide mask mandate on July 11, three parishes met the criteria to opt out of the mandate: Grant, Red River and West Feliciana. However, he said today that all 64 parishes don’t meet that criteria, having a high incidence of COVID-19: more than 100 or more cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period.
Edwards contributed reagent issues in labs for the longer turnaround times, and said the sheer volume of tests being sent out to commercial labs is causing an issue as well. He said of all the tests reported today, “65 percent of those were within the last week; 30 percent were in the week before that.”
Today, the Louisiana Department of Health reported that the total number of cases has risen to 101,650 — 2,296 more cases than yesterday.
At the briefing, Edwards also shared that he does not want to go back to Phase 1 and again asked everyone to do their part: washing hands, social distancing, staying home as much as possible and wearing a mask.
“It shouldn’t be necessary to go backwards, but the only thing that’s gonna keep us from doing that is have everybody wear a mask when you’re outside of your home,” he said. “It’s a small price to pay, and it is being a good neighbor to others. And it is being considerate and courteous.”
