COVID worsens; Edwards urges Christmas at home

Gov. John Bel Edwards is pleading with Louisianans to forego normal holiday activities as the state continues to battle a worsening third surge of COVID-19.

“If you’re considering travel, please don’t. If you’re considering normal activities that you would engage in in other years, please don’t. If you’re thinking of having multiple households, multiple generations all celebrating together, please don’t,” Edwards said during a press conference Thursday.

The governor’s urging comes as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, both statewide and in Lincoln Parish, continues to climb, and officials become increasingly worried about hospital capacity.

Hospitalizations “are at a trajectory we cannot sustain for much longer if we want to preserve that capacity to deliver lifesaving care,” he said.

“We don’t want to resort to crisis care,” Edwards said.

Northern Louisiana Medical Center’s COVID intensive care unit was full Friday afternoon.

“We’ve had a significant uptick in our numbers,” NLMC Marketing Director Elizabeth Turnley said.

Meantime, as of noon Friday, Louisiana had added 2,191 new confirmed COVID cases overnight. Hospitalizations were at 1,589, up by 60 patients from the day before.

Confirmed cases in Lincoln Parish now stand at 2,439. That’s an increase of 194 known cases this month. The parish also recorded two more confirmed COVID-19 deaths, bringing to 61, the number of local residents who have succumbed to the virus.

Edwards’ comments and the latest numbers come as the first round of frontline healthcare workers prepare to take the new COVID-19 vaccine.

NLMC employees who have the most direct patient contact are expected to get their initial injection of the Pfizer vaccine beginning Tuesday.

“We were just sitting on go waiting for the FDA and the CDC to approve the vaccine,” Turnley said.

As of Friday, final approval by the FDA was pending.

Statewide, the shots are also expected to be available to hospital workers within days. But while Edwards hailed the vaccine as promising news that ultimately may help end the pandemic, he said the vaccine “is not going to save us now.”

The governor asked Louisianans to double down in adhering to mitigation measures including wearing masks, washing hands, social distancing and giving up holiday celebrations with people not in their immediate household.

“You can show your love for your loved ones without being physically present with them,” Edwards said.

Edwards said the state still hasn’t seen the full impact of Thanksgiving holiday travel and gettogethers. He predicted a Thanksgiving surge on top of the surge the state is already experiencing.

“If we have a post-Christmas surge on top of that, we’ll be in a very critical situation,” Edwards said.

He said there’s more COVID already in Louisiana “than at any time in this pandemic.”

“It pains me to say this, but I am absolutely confident that hundreds of families will go through Christmas without a loved one because we lost that person because of what happened at Thanksgiving,” Edwards said. “So, the worst thing we want is to do is propound that again.”

Edwards ordered Louisiana back into a modified version of the Phase 2 coronavirus restrictions in November, but the pandemic continued to worsen. The rate of COVID tests coming back positive has particularly concerned officials.

Forty-eight of the state’s 64 parishes had a positivity rate of 10% or more. Lincoln Parish’s positivity rate is 11.3%. That’s higher than the state’s 10.6% rate.

Health officials say anything over 5% is troubling.