The Louisiana State Department of Health reported 2,746 cases of the
Wuhan Virus and 119 deaths today. 773 patients are hospitalized while
270 are on ventilators. Jefferson and Orleans parishes comprise 62% of infections and 68% of the deaths.
More data can be found at the Louisiana Department of Health website.
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| Credit: Times-Picayune |
The Times-Picayune interviewed health care workers on the front lines in New Orleans hospitals:
(Touro) It’s been over a week since a patient care tech at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans has changed her N95 face mask or her gown, even though she said she should be changing them each time she works with a new patient in the hospital’s quarantine units.
Health care workers at Touro can only receive new masks if the ones they’ve been wearing are broken or soiled from patients, though the masks aren’t meant to be used for more than eight hours. The tech works 12-hour shifts, meaning her mask was potentially ineffective by the end of her first day. She’s now been wearing it for five days.
She said the hospital is also short on gowns, with workers being told to preserve them unless they rip, get wet or soiled. Short on supplies and feeling unprotected from the spread of COVID, she said her job has become increasingly stressful.
“They’re short of everything,” she said. ”Everybody is scared to be in the [patient] rooms for a long period of time. It seems like we’re not caring for the patient, and that adds stress.”
(Unamed NOLA Hospital) One New Orleans ER doctor said her hospital’s staff has burned through several months’ worth of masks and gloves in one week. Those precious supplies — personal protective equipment, or PPE — are now under lock and key at her hospital because patients and employees were stealing them.
(Oschner) It’s not older people who are filling up ICUs in hospitals, said another nurse. “The people on vents are 40 and 50 years old,” she said. “It’s not the elderly. It’s scary.”
Like others, she said being asked to reuse protective gear that’s normally seen as disposable makes her worry for the family she goes home to every night.
“We didn’t sign up to be soldiers,” she said. “We didn’t sign up to die, have our families die, so we should be taken care of. If we’re told we don’t have any (protection), a lot of nurses are not going to be working.” Rest of article.
19 comments:
But they just HAD TO HAVE Mardi Gras. "As you sow, so shall ye reap." What did the selfish ones expect?
I'm going to ignore the Troll @12:33PM, but I'm having a hard time with the Mardi Gras effect and the timeline except that Coronavirus was introduced to New Orleans at Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras was 2/25, but the weekend before - 2/21-2/23 - is the big weekend for visitors. Those dates are 26-30 days ago.
If there were already multiple cases prior to Mardi Gras & 2/21-2/25 was a major infection period, those folks would have shown symptoms within 14 days, but within 5 days on average, so there would have been at least 2 and an average of 5 generations of infection since then. That may well be the case, but following a large infection event and 2-5 generations of spread, the numbers should be huge by now and the growth would have been big by 3/5 or 3/6.
They may very well be that big with the only limited testing, but with the whole world talking about Coronavirus, how was every case missed prior to March 9 when the first case was diagnosed in Louisiana? That seems unlikely if Mardi Gras was a major spreading event, but not if it was the first introductory event.
it doesn't really matter and we may never know, but my quick calculations suggest that Mardi Gras brought Coronavirus to New Orleans and kick-started it's rapid spread (in New Orleans especially - but also around the country). It's really not a fair comparison the the 1918 Philadelphia situation or the Spring Breakers last week.
The national shortage of N95 respirator masks can be traced back to 2009 after the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, when the Obama administration was advised to replenish a national stockpile but did not, according to reports from Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times.
Kingfish, the mayor of New Orleans must read your blog.
2009 was... *counting* ... 11 years ago. Who has been in charge since early 2017? Have another booger, dummy.
Since Mississippi's red-faced mushy, spineless and testosterone free governor has proclaimed business-as-usual Mississippi will soon follow New Orleans.
12:33 is a jackass. Nothing in the US was closed or shut down the week of Mardi Gras.
New Orleans is a huge international tourism destination. People from around the world go there. Not surprising that people would travel there, not know they had it, and then go back home and test positive. Same with New York, LA, San Francisco...not surprising that there's huge virus numbers there...
New Orleans is a swamp!
Should have been filled in with dirt after Katrina.
Don't worry , they will just drive over to Mississippi & infect us. It's coming.
I wonder if it had anything to do with having Mardi Gras which violated all the cdc rules regarding COVID-19?
I was at Mardi Gras and watched my neighbors fall out with what he thought was pneumonia.
He was bed ridden for a week as was his roommate.
I haven’t been around them in 30 days and I appear to be ok.
There was no talk of trump-rona virus at all before or during Mardi Gras.
Trump-rona virus 🦠 was finally disclosed by Trump after Mardi Gras and everything thereafter was cancelled.
Trump gave us Trump-rona.
Thanks for the graphs, KF. I find those very helpful in understanding the numbers.
My prayers for NOLA. I lived there in the 1980's, attended graduate school at Tulane, love the city, people, and rich cultural heritage. Makes me sad that Covid-19 is taking such a heavy toll there.
Let them drown, who gives a shucks?
This might be a decent time for everyone to show a little humanity and drop the vitriol.
Kingfish provides good info and interesting stories. Why I visit his page. However, it’s absolutely stunning to see number of ignorant and hateful comments today. Gives new meaning to the stereotypical Mississippi everyone on the outside assumes about us. Seems they might be onto something after reading most of the commentary here today. Scary.
A) What date did Disneyland shutdown?
B) What date did Disney World shutdown?
Why would anyone think Mardi Gras should have been cancelled (considering what was known at that time), and that anyone that participated in the festivities gets what they deserve?
New Orleans happens to be a very large convention destination. Not like anyone in Jackson would know what that looks like. Who would choose to have an international or large national convention in Jackson? Nobody.
There were multiple conventions held during the Mardi Gras season. The convention center was in use for conventions up until the final weekend of Mardi Gras for regular business.
Not to mention New Orleans is an INTERNATIONAL PORT city. Silly thinking. Anyone on the many commercial vessels docking in or near the city could have brought people in (unknowingly) that carried the virus. Same goes for the cruise ships that normally run in and out of New Orleans. Ever stop to think how many people fly in and out of New Orleans to go on these cruises? Even during Mardi Gras season? Probably not.
So, yeah, let’s blame Mardi Gras and the sinners for bringing this invisible pandemic down on themselves. Just like the 1918 pandemic. The heathens living in the cesspool of sin deserved it then too, right?
10:45 am
Correct
But this blog lives on clicks
So hate rules the day
One day we will turn this shit off
After Katrina, there were letters to the Northside Sun that blamed the disaster on our wickedness.
One day we will turn this shit off.
Can't turn off what you don't own.
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