BATON ROUGE – Governor John Bel Edwards had a stark warning for Louisiana residents during his afternoon coronavirus press conference yesterday afternoon.
Hospitals in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes may be overwhelmed within seven to 10 days, Edwards said.
“We were able to determine basically what is a worst case scenario,” he said. “The coronavirus spread and it’s impact could begin to outpace our healthcare capacity in a certain region. Down in the Orleans, Jefferson region within about seven to 10 days without additional support from the federal government.”
Edwards also said he wanted to remind everyone that we are still at the beginning of this crisis.
“If you just look at the increase in cases, day to day, the percentage of new cases and how long it takes to double the number of cases, and this is early, but our trajectory is basically what they had in Italy,” he said.
Edwards stressed that we’ve got to follow the rules if we’re going to stop this virus in Louisiana.
The number of cases in New Orleans is among the highest in the nation, just under the Chicago area.
Edwards also said he’s suspending accountability requirements for all schools so kids who can’t be in class don’t have to take normal tests.
