Louisiana hospitals reach capacity as COVID-19 cases increase

Louisiana hospitals run out of intensive care beds as COVID-19 cases increase in the state.

The general hospitals of Notre-Dame de Lourdes and Oschner Lafayette are short of intensive care beds. Our Lady of Lourdes has resorted to the conversion of ordinary beds outside intensive care to fight the virus, KATC ABC 3 reported.

“Part of that and why it’s such a high percentage of our 70 patients is that we are seeing increased severity of this disease in those people who, many of them, are otherwise perfectly healthy,” Dr. Henry Kaufman, acting chief medical officer at Notre-Dame de Lourdes, said during a press briefing.

There are three of 156 open beds in Region 4 of the state, with more than 1,000 people hospitalized across Louisiana with the virus, according to the outlet.

“About four weeks ago we had ten people across our health care system with COVID and today we have 97,” Ochsner Lafayette chief medical officer General Amanda Logue said.

There are a total of 162 people on coronavirus ventilators in the state.

“The transmission is very high. We know that this Delta variant is very contagious, contagious… I have heard reports that a person could infect up to five to eight people if they were around them unprotected. is incredibly high numbers and continues to make the spread much faster, ”said Logue.

Both hospitals said there had been an increase in the number of patients under the age of 60.

The news of the hospitalizations comes amid growing concern among federal health officials over the delta variant. The strain, first identified in India, has become the dominant variant in the United States. Public health officials have observed that the strain can enter the vaccine, although they say the vaccine continues to offer protection against serious illness and death.

It was the spread of this strain that also prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week to issue new guidelines, advising vaccinated officials to wear masks indoors in areas where the coronavirus is in. huge increase.

Louisiana has a low vaccination rate with only 36% of the population fully vaccinated against the virus, according to data from John Hopkins University.

Overall, there have been more than 541,000 reported cases of the virus and nearly 11,000 deaths.

The state is one of many to see an increase in cases and hospitalizations of the delta variant.