NEW ORLEANS — Confirmed coronavirus cases in Louisiana rose 13% to 10,297 Friday, although the rate of infected people requiring hospitalization has slowed in the past 48 hours, according to the state Department of Health.
The state recorded 60 new deaths Friday, bringing the total to 370.
As a percentage of the state’s population, Louisiana continues to remain an epicenter of the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, in December. As of noon Friday, New Orleans and adjoining Jefferson Parish accounted for 58% of the state’s infections and 63% of the deaths.
In one potentially promising sign, however, the number of people hospitalized was 1,707 Friday. That was an increase of 4% from the day before, but a slowdown from a 9% increase in hospitalizations between Wednesday and Thursday, according to health department data.
Of those hospitalized, 535 need ventilators, a 31% rate that has held steady for several days. The number of hospitalizations among the Pelican State’s 4.6 million residents concerns authorities, as it does in New York and other hard-hit states.
Louisiana has been under shelter-in-place orders since March 21, a strict policy that Gov. John Bel Edwards extended tentatively to April 30 late Thursday. The state and National Guard have been working to install hospital wings in places such as the New Orleans Convention Center that would house patients on the way to recovery and free up hospital beds for the more critically ill.
Some doctors think that New Orleans may be suffering acutely partly because of the city’s famous Mardi Gras celebrations, which this year packed hundreds of thousands into small neighborhoods for a massive party that culminated Feb. 25.
• James Varney can be reached at jvarney@washingtontimes.com.
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