New Orleans EMS Cannot Answer Calls Due to Covid-19 Outbreak As Mayor Reinstates Mask Mandate

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“We’ve been here before; we’ve seen the movie.… What was once impossible to avoid is now preventable. And that’s because of the vaccination of our people.”

Over the past week, the city has seen more than 1,000 new cases of Covid-19, Cantrell said. And the daily average of cases also reached 272, up from 104 last week, she said.

“It’s a very dangerous number,” she said. “Our children die. From two weeks to two years to four years. You can’t make it up. Our children are dying.”

The mayor’s mask mandate comes into effect immediately and applies to indoor settings and large outdoor crowds. The mayor is also demanding that all city employees get vaccinated.

“You really need this mask, period, that you are vaccinated and of course not vaccinated,” she said.

More than 71% of New Orleans city employees are vaccinated, but that’s not enough, Cantrell said.

With just 36.8% of Louisiana’s population fully vaccinated, the state recorded the nation’s highest case rate per 100,000 people over the past week with 573.3 cases, according to Federal Health.
The state’s seven-day death rate per 100,000 residents is 1.7, the third highest in the country, with Nevada the highest and Arkansas the second, according to federal data released Friday.

The rise in the number of cases has prompted Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards to seriously consider a mask warrant.

“The Delta variant is a game-changer, and at this point it’s not about vaccinating or masking, we have to do both,” Edwards said at a press conference Friday.

'I'm furious with myself': unvaccinated Covid patient describes exhausting disease

“Right now, at least 83.7% of all Covid cases in our region are a result of the Delta variant, and therefore anyone positive for Covid in Louisiana should assume they are from the Delta variant,” and ultimately you have to take the same precautions, whatever, ”he said.

The variant has spread across the country, alarming health officials. Safety restrictions and mask guidelines are making a comeback as cases have risen by at least 10% in nearly every state in the United States over the past week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The variant spreads faster and more easily than the first strain of coronavirus and can infect fully vaccinated people whose symptoms are usually milder.

Emma Walton and Maddison Mansfield of Little Rock, Arkansas, walk down Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

And with late vaccination numbers, children are paying the price for new cases.

Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is experiencing a peak in Covid-19 cases now, that’s double what they saw in the initial outbreak of the pandemic. last year, said Dr Trey Dunbar, president of the hospital.

“We’ve seen a pretty dramatic increase over the past two weeks,” Dunbar told CNN by phone on Friday. “A good number of more children require hospitalization.”

The hospital is currently treating seven Covid-19 patients, but Dunbar estimates eight to 12 patients are admitted per day. The hospital records up to about six admissions per day, with about 50% of those patients going to intensive care, according to Dunbar.

Meanwhile, the parish of Caddo in Louisiana will require everyone to wear masks in their facilities and buildings starting Monday. According to the state health department, 32% of the parish population is fully vaccinated.

CNN’s Hannah Sarisohn, Jeremy Grisham, Deanna Hackney and Paul P. Murphy contributed to this report.

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