LUY-Development

Category: COVID-19

  • Saints Coach Payton Says He Tested Positive For Coronavirus

    Saints Coach Payton Says He Tested Positive For Coronavirus

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton says he has tested positive for the coronavirus, is resting comfortably at home and is making his test result public in hopes he can motivate people to do more to fight the pandemic.

    Payton learned Thursday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, he told ESPN before posting a photo of himself smiling as he sat on a couch next to his dog.

    “Appreciate the well wishes,” Payton wrote on his Twitter page. “I’m feeling better and fortunate to not have any of the respiratory symptoms. 4 more days at home.”

    Payton, 56, is the first employee of either an NFL team or the league to make such a diagnosis public.

    Payton told ESPN that he was tested Monday for coronavirus after he began to feel ill a day earlier. He added that he has not been admitted to a hospital and does not have a fever or cough.

    “I was fortunate to be in the minority, without the serious side effects that some have. I’m lucky,” Payton told ESPN. “Younger people feel like they can handle this, but they can be a carrier to someone who can’t handle it. So we all need to do our part. It’s important for every one of us to do our part.”

    Payton said he felt it was important to be particularly vigilant in Louisiana and the New Orleans area because of international tourist traffic, especially around recently concluded Mardi Gras festivites.

    “So our parents, and those that are more susceptible to this virus, deserve everyone doing their best to combat it,” Payton said. “There are hundreds of people right now in tough predicaments, fighting for their lives. Let’s be part of the solution, not the problem. We can easily help reduce the numbers of those impacted. We have to do our best to beat this.

    “This is not just about social distancing,” Payton said. “It’s shutting down here for a week to two weeks. If people understand the curve, and understand the bump, we can easily work together as a country to reduce it.

    “Take a minute to understand what the experts are saying. It’s not complicated to do what they’re asking of us. Just that type of small investment by every one of us will have a dramatic impact.”

    Payton was tested soon after he returned from attending horse races Saturday at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the coach’s announcement had a ripple effect in horse racing.

    New Orleans-based thoroughbred trainer Tom Amoss said he had spent time with Payton at Oaklawn Park and would immediately stop training horses that were scheduled to run at New Orleans’ Fair Grounds Race Course. On Saturday, Oaklawn remains scheduled to host the Louisiana Derby and several other graded stakes races — minus fans.

    “I am self quarantining immediately and will get tested at the earliest possible time,” Amoss wrote on social media. “I feel great and have had no symptoms. Wishing Coach a fast recovery.”

    NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wished Payton well in a statement, and urged those in the NFL community and elsewhere to focus on public safety.

    “Our primary concern is for Sean’s health and well-being,” Goodell said. “He did the right thing by seeking medical attention and we wish him a speedy recovery. It shouldn’t come as a surprise as this pandemic continues that members of our NFL family will be directly impacted.

    “This news underscores the importance of everyone following the advice from medical and public health experts to protect themselves and others.”

    Payton took his first head coaching job with the Saints in 2006. It was the club’s first season back in New Orleans after being displaced to San Antonio by Hurricane Katrina for the entire 2005 regular season. Payton has coached the Saints every season since — except 2012, when he was suspended for what the NFL said was his failure to stop an improper cash-for-hits bounty program run by former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and some defensive players between the 2009 and 2011 seasons.

    Eight of the 13 Saints squads Payton has coached have made the playoffs, advancing to the NFC title game in the 2006, 2009 and 2018 seasons, with the 2009 team winning the franchise’s lone Super Bowl title.

    Payton designs the offense for the most part and calls plays for the unit led by record-setting quarterback Drew Brees, whom Payton recruited to New Orleans as a free agent in 2006.

    With Payton at the helm, the Saints have have ranked first in the NFL in total offense yards six times, in the top four 10 times and never worse than ninth.

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    More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL

  • Governors Raise Alarm As Coronavirus Taxes Health Systems

    Governors Raise Alarm As Coronavirus Taxes Health Systems

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — In a day of dizzying developments, governors across the U.S. sounded a perilous alarm about the rapid spread of the new coronavirus and warned of dire consequences for their health care systems.

    The governor of California issued a statewide stay-at-home order, Pennsylvania’s governor ordered more than 150 types of businesses to close, the governor of Texas closed schools for more than 5 million students and the Louisiana governor delivered a grim assessment of his state to President Donald Trump.

    U.S. governors told the president Thursday that their states are in immediate need of federal help as they expand measures to contain the new coronavirus. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said his state’s health system could be overwhelmed in a week.

    “Our trajectory is basically the same as what they had in Italy. And if there’s anything I said today that ought to get people’s attention, it is that,” the Democratic governor said. “If we are not going to look like Italy in 10 days or two weeks, it will only be because of these mitigation measures.”

    In a conference call with other governors, Edwards warned Trump of the “worst-case scenario” modeling. But he also told reporters that Louisiana was on track for that “sobering” reality if the state’s residents don’t actively work to decrease contact with others — staying home more and distancing themselves from people.

    Louisiana had nearly 400 positive tests for COVID-19 Thursday, up from 280 a day earlier, Edwards said. Ten people have died.

    Sobering projections for infections and hospitalizations prompted governors across the country to take their toughest actions to date to try to control the outbreak.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom said infection rates are doubling every four days in some parts of the state and issued the dire prediction that 56% of the state’s population — equal to 22.4 million people — could contract the virus over the next eight weeks.

    His order late Thursday restricted non-essential movement for all residents.

    “This is a moment we need to make tough decisions,” Newsom said. “We need to recognize reality.”

    Earlier in the day, he asked congressional leaders for $1 billion in initial federal funding to help the nation’s most populous state fight the virus. He also asked for the federal government to deploy the USNS Mercy Hospital Ship to the port of Los Angeles to help the state “decompress” its health care system, predicting that California would be thousands of hospital beds short of meeting the demand.

    In their teleconference with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, governors pressed for more supplies — masks and other protective equipment for medical professionals, test kits and life-saving supplies such as ventilators.

    New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she wanted better coordination between the federal government and the states regarding the supply chain for essential medical equipment.

    “Where is it, who is making it and where is it getting deployed?” said Grisham’s spokesman, Tripp Stelnicki. “There really needs to be more clear communication.”

    The White House disputed governors’ claims that they could not get equipment but offered help to states that were struggling to acquire materials such as test swabs and processing agents.

    Governors also asked for additional oversight of their National Guard units, mostly to have more leeway to deploy them for humanitarian purposes. They want Guard units to help run mobile screening facilities, disinfect public spaces and distribute medical supplies such as gloves, gowns and face shields.

    “We need all levels of government working together to get through this crisis,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, chairman of the National Governors Association.

    Urgent developments accelerated throughout the day, as more governors made sweeping recommendations for residents to avoid public spaces or greatly limit their exposure to others.

    In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf tightened his directives to businesses to shut down, issuing a dire warning and saying that all “non-life-sustaining” businesses in the state must close their physical locations by 8 p.m. to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Enforcement actions against businesses that do not close their physical locations will begin Saturday, Wolf said in a statement.

    South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order calling on all nonessential state employees to stay home.

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ordered health care providers to postpone elective surgeries and other medical procedures so they can focus on responding to the anticipated surge of coronavirus cases.

    “The greatest risk we face during the COVID-19 pandemic is overwhelming our health care systems and limiting their ability to respond to emerging cases,” Walz said in a statement.

    Hogan said governors also are requesting a delay or greater flexibility for completing the 2020 census and the transition to Real ID.

    Maryland has waived state requirements so driver’s licenses won’t expire during the state of emergency to prevent crowds at Motor Vehicle Administration offices, he said. However, federal law requires Real ID compliance by Oct. 1. Hogan said governors don’t want people coming to MVAs with the documents they need to present in person to be in compliance.

    “Other governors all agreed and said, ‘Yes, that’s a big problem for all of us.’ So, we’re just asking to push the pause button on all these things that require interaction with people where they would spread the disease,” Hogan said.

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    Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Washington, D.C.; David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Kathleen Ronayne and Don Thompson in Sacramento, California, contributed to this report.

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    The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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    Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

  • Global stocks, US futures rise on virus aid hopes

    BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets and U.S. futures rose Friday on hopes that government and central bank action can help the world economy endure a looming recession caused by the coronavirus.

    European markets were as much as 4% higher and Shanghai, Hong Kong and other Asian markets advanced. Seoul surged 7.4%.

    Investors were encouraged after seeing more steps by the Federal Reserve and other central banks and governments to support credit markets and the economy.

    On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index rose 2% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.4%.

    Hopes are rising that there will be progress in finding virus treatments and that “a boatload of stimulus by both central banks and governments will put the global economy in position for a U-shaped recovery,” said Edward Moya of Oanda in a report.

    On Thursday, the European Central Bank launched a program to inject money into credit markets by purchasing up to 750 billion euros ($820 billion) in bonds. The Bank of England cut its key interest rate to a record low of 0.1% and restarted its own program of money injections into the financial system. Australia’s central bank cut its benchmark lending rate to 0.25%. Central banks in Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines also cut rates.

    They are trying to reduce the impact of a global recession that forecasters say looks increasingly likely as the United States and other governments tighten travel controls, close businesses and tell consumers and travelers to stay home.

    Investors also appeared to be encouraged by reports that China is set to ramp up stimulus spending after the province where the virus emerged in December showed no new infections on Wednesday.

    London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.6% to 5,237 and the DAX in Frankfurt advanced 4.2% to 8,968. France’s CAC 40 gained 4.9% to 4,044 and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 2% to 15,773.

    In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.6% to 2,745.62, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 5.1% to 22,805.07. The Kospi in Seoul advanced 7.4% to 1,566.15 and Australia’s S&P-ASX 200 added 0.7% to 4,816.60 after being up more than 4% at one point.

    The U.S. Federal Reserve unveiled measures Thursday to support money-market funds and the borrowing of dollars as investors in markets worldwide hurry to build up dollars and cash as insurance against falling asset prices.

    That rush to gather dollars is straining markets, with sellers of even high-quality bonds struggling to find buyers at reasonable prices.

    Investors are jumpy due to uncertainty about the size and duration of the impact of the coronavirus and the spreading wave of business shutdowns meant to help contain it.

    More than 10,000 people have died. There are more than 244,000 cases worldwide, including nearly 85,000 people who have recovered.

    For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and those with mild illness recover in about two weeks. Severe illness including pneumonia can occur, especially in the elderly and people with existing health problems, and recovery could take six weeks in such cases.

    Wall Street has bounced up and down by record-setting margins of up to 12% over the past week.

    Unease has grown as forecasters say a global recession looks increasingly likely and have cut growth outlooks for the United States, China and other major economies.

    In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude gained 75 cents to $25.97 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract surged $5.08 on Thursday to settle at $25.91.

    Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 77 cents to $29.24 per barrel in London. It rose 14.4%, or $3.59, to settle at $28.47 the previous session.

    The dollar declined to 110.07 Japanese yen from Thursday’s 110.71 yen. The euro rose to $1.0721 from $1.0692.

  • 40 million Californians ordered to stay home to halt virus

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s 40 million residents should stay home indefinitely and venture outside only for essential jobs, errands and some exercise, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday, warning that the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the state’s medical system.

    The move, the most sweeping by any state so far, was an exclamation point at the end of a week of increasingly aggressive moves meant to keep the virus in check by forcing people to stay away from each other as often as possible.

    “I can assure you home isolation is not my preferred choice, I know it’s not yours, but it’s a necessary one,” Newsom said at an evening news conference streamed on social media.

    He assured residents that they “can still take your kids outside, practicing common sense and social distancing. You can still walk your dog.” Restaurant meals can still be delivered to homes.

    The announcement came after the release of a letter to President Donald Trump where Newsom warned the virus was spreading quickly and eventually could infect more than half the state’s population. A spokesman later clarified that the figure did not take into account the aggressive mitigation efforts that have been made.

    The governor said he doesn’t expect police will be needed to enforce his stay-at-home order, saying “social pressure” already has led to social distancing throughout the state.

    “I don’t believe the people of California need to be told through law enforcement that it’s appropriate just to home isolate,” he said.

    The Democrat who is barely a year into his first term also called up 500 National Guard troops to help distribute food. The move comes after panic buying led to massive lines at some grocery stores.

    Newsom also outlined a series of steps aimed at providing more space for hospital patients.

    He said the state has taken over a 357-bed bankrupt hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area, soon will announce the purchase of a similarly sized hospital in Southern California and may use dormitories at the state’s public colleges and universities. He also asked Trump to dock the Navy’s 1,000-patient Mercy hospital ship in the Port of Los Angeles.

    The coronavirus is spread through sneezes and coughs. There are at least 1,030 confirmed cases in California and 18 people have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

    Newsom’s statewide order came after counties and communities covering about half the state’s population already had issued similar edicts. He said the restriction is “open-ended” because it could raise false hopes if he included an end date.

    However, he did offer a glimmer by saying he didn’t expect it would last “many, many months.”

    Just before Newsom’s statewide declaration, Los Angeles announced what officials there called a “Safer at Home” order that carried the same restrictions.

    “We’re about to enter into a new way of living here in Los Angeles,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “What we do and how we do it and if we get this right will determine how long this crisis lasts.”

    In the letter to Trump seeking the hospital ship, Newsom said California’s infection rates are doubling every four days in some areas and that 56% of the state’s population could contract the virus in the next eight weeks, which would be more than 22 million people. He later said the “overwhelming majority won’t have symptoms” and will be fine but that up to 20% could be hospitalized.

    “If we meet this moment we can truly bend the curve” of escalating cases, Newsom said.

    For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. It can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, for some people, especially older adults and those with existing health problems.

    Most people recover — those with mild illness in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks, according to the World Health Organization.

    Also Thursday, Newsom asked U.S. House and Senate leaders for $1 billion to support state and local health systems. He said that money would be needed to do things like set up state-run and mobile hospitals, housing options to help people socially distance and testing and treatment for people without health insurance.

    He also asked for assistance so the state can extend unemployment benefits beyond the usual 26-week limit, expand food assistance programs, resources for the homeless and tribal communities and boost childcare programs. He further asked for assistance for schools, aid to local and state budgets and transportation relief.

    “While California has prudently built a sizable Rainy Day Fund over the past ten years, the economic effects of this emergency are certain to mean that the state and its 58 counties will struggle to maintain essential programs and services,” he wrote.

    Newsom earlier announced $150 million of a $1 billion emergency state appropriation would go toward getting homeless people off the streets. He has estimated up to 60,000 of the state’s homeless could get infected.

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    This story has been corrected to show that Newsom said up to 20% of people infected by coronavirus, not 20,000 people, could be hospitalized.

  • National Guard Deployed To Support Hospitals, Set Up Testing Sites

    National Guard Deployed To Support Hospitals, Set Up Testing Sites

    State Governors To Use The Guard In Ways They Deem Most Effective

    General Joseph L. Lengyel, 28th Chief of the National Guard Bureau announced today (March 19) that about 2500 National Guard members will be deployed in 27 states to help with COVID19 coronavirus response efforts across the US.

    General Lengyel shared news of what the Guard is doing in various states:

    The New York National Guard is helping local officials distribute food, much of it in the hard-hit area of New Rochelle.

    A Tennessee Air National Guard C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft delivered 500,000 swabs to be added to COVID-19 test kits in Memphis Wednesday.

    More than 500 soldiers are assisting with collecting samples from drive-through testing in Broward County, Florida.

    In Maryland, the National Guard is supporting medical assessments and testing site operations.

    The Wisconsin National Guard is supporting transportation missions for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

    In Louisiana, Guard liaison officers are assisting the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security in emergency preparedness.

    Across the U.S., civil support teams are supporting the local departments of health with drive-through testing stations.

    So far, six members of the Guard in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the General. Force health protection measures are in place to prevent more from contracting the virus.

  • Trump weighs controls on companies that take virus bailouts

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday the government should take an equity stake in some companies that need bailouts because of devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the U.S. economy.

    Trump told a briefing he has executive authority to curb the impact on businesses. “There’s a lot of executive power,” he said. “If we don’t have to use it, that would be a good thing, not a bad thing.”

    Such a move could be an extraordinary reach by government into the private sector. He said he’d specifically target companies that did stock buybacks, rather than investing in infrastructure. Trump also said he’d back restrictions on executive bonuses and future buybacks from companies receiving federal support.

    Trump reported Thursday on therapeutic drugs that might hold potential down the road to treat those suffering with COVID-19 and stepped up criticism of China for not telling the world earlier about what has become a pandemic.

    “More help is on the way,” Trump said at a White House briefing on the spread of the virus.

    Trump and FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn described several approaches under testing, such as chloroquine, a drug long used to treat malaria; remdesivir, an experimental antiviral that’s being tried in at least five separate experiments, and possibly antibodies culled from the blood of COVID-19 patients after they recover. But no new and imminent treatment was announced.

    Chloroquine is widely available now and could be used off-label, but Hahn said officials want a formal study to get good information on safety and effectiveness.

    “We’re looking at drugs that are already approved for other indications” as a potential bridge or stopgap until studies are completed on other drugs under investigation, Hahn said. But there remains no proven treatment for the disease, from which most people recover.

    Trump, who planned to visit the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday, has invoked rarely used emergency powers to marshal critical medical supplies against the coronavirus pandemic. Trump also signed an aid package — which the Senate approved earlier Wednesday — that will guarantee sick leave to workers who fall ill.

    Trump jabbed at China, where the virus was first reported, contending: “Could have been stopped. Could have been stopped. Could have been stopped pretty easily.” He said Chinese officials “didn’t decide to make it public” in time to stop the virus from going global.

    The pandemic was starting to show its effects in the job market. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits surged last week by 70,000.

    The Canada-U.S. border, the world’s longest, was effectively closed, save for commerce and essential travel, while the administration pushed its plan to send relief checks to millions of Americans.

    Trump says he is expanding the nation’s diagnostic testing capacity and deploying a Navy hospital ship to New York City, which is rapidly becoming an epicenter of the pandemic, and another such ship to the West Coast. And the Housing and Urban Development Department is suspending foreclosures and evictions through April to help the growing number of Americans who face losing jobs and missing rent and mortgage payments.

    IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY:

    On Wednesday the Senate overwhelmingly passed a second coronavirus response bill, which Trump signed Wednesday night. The vote was a lopsided 90-8 despite worries by many Republicans about a temporary new employer mandate to provide sick leave to workers who get COVID-19. The measure is also aimed at making tests for the virus free.

    Meanwhile the administration pushed forward its broad economic rescue plan, which proposes $500 billion in checks to millions of Americans, with the first checks to come April 6 if Congress approves.

    The White House urged hospitals to cancel all elective surgeries to reduce the risk of being overwhelmed by cases. The president was pressed on why a number of celebrities, like professional basketball players, seemed to have easier access to diagnostic tests than ordinary citizens.

    The government has told Americans to avoid groups of more than 10 people and the elderly to stay home while a pointed reminder was given to millennials to follow the guidelines and avoid social gatherings. But officials urged younger people to donate blood, saying it is safe to do so.

    The Defense Production Act gives the president broad authority to shape the domestic industrial base so that it is capable of providing essential materials and goods needed in a national security crisis. The law allows the president to require businesses and corporations to give priority to and accept contracts for required materials and services.

    The executive order issued by Trump gives Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar the authority to determine “the proper nationwide priorities and allocation of all health and medical resources, including controlling the distribution of such materials … in the civilian market, for responding to the spread of COVID-19 within the United States.” It also applies to certain health services.

    Azar released a statement Wednesday night, saying, “we are coordinating closely with private suppliers, healthcare purchasers, and our federal partners like the Commerce Department to ensure that resources are going where they’re needed.”

    Trump also said he would soon invoke a rarely used federal statute that would enable the U.S. to tighten controls along the southwest border because of the new coronavirus, based on a recommendation of the U.S. surgeon general.

    The president said the law, intended to halt the spread of communicable diseases, would give authorities “great latitude” to help control the outbreak. Earlier, U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the administration would invoke the law to immediately turn back all people who cross the border illegally from Mexico and to refuse people the right to claim asylum there.

    COPING WITH THE OUTBREAK:

    More than eight weeks after the first U.S. case of the virus was detected, the federal government is still struggling to conduct widescale testing for the virus. Compounding the problem, laboratories are reporting shortages of supplies needed to run the tests, which officials urged to be given to those most likely to have COVID-19.

    Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the White House response, cautioned that there has been a backlog of swabs waiting in labs to be tested, and as that backlog clears “we will see the number of people diagnosed dramatically increased” in the next few days.

    Asked about the administration’s mixed messages when it comes to the threat posed by the virus, Birx said new studies about how long the virus can be transmissible on hard surfaces helped prompt the administration’s tightening of recommendations on social distancing. “None of us really understood” that, she said. “We’re still working out how much is by human transmission and how much is it by surface.” She added, “Don’t exposure yourself to surfaces outside the home.”

    For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

    The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

    Birx said there have been “concerning reports” from France and Italy about young people becoming seriously ill. The task force last week urged young generations to avoid going out to bars and restaurants and to avoid groups of more than 10 people.

    “We cannot have these large gatherings that continue throughout the country for people who are off work,” Birx said. She added that the federal pandemic task force so far has not seen any “significant mortality” in children.

  • Important From OEP Office Concordia

    I have received several phone calls, text messages, and facebook messages in regards to the rumor of the National Guard being deployed in the next 48 to 72 hours for a mandatory 14 day quarantine for all Louisiana residents.

     

    That information is not true, it is totally false and is being spread through social media, text messages, and by word of mouth.

     

    I am asking you as the leadership of Concordia Parish to please copy and paste the information below to your information websites, and  to your City, Town, or Village Face Book Pages.

     

    I am also asking that you forward this email to all of your Board of Alderman, Police Chiefs, Fire Chiefs, and your areas media personnel

     

    This is the kind of rhetoric that begins to cause fear and paranoia throughout our community, and it is up to us as the leadership of Concordia Parish to get factual information to the public to dispel false information.

     

    Today I have spoken with every Mayor or Mayor’s Office in Concordia Parish to get a pulse of how things are going with the Governor’s Declaration for Concordia Parish and for each of the Authorities Having Jurisdiction.  I was very encourage by the feedback and comments that I have received from each.  I am assured that each AHJ is being diligent in their efforts to abide by the Emergency Declaration set forth by our Governor.

     

    Concordia Parish seems to be heading in the right direction and taking all the necessary precautions to combat the spread of the COVID-19 Virus.

     

    On behalf of the Concordia Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness I would like to thank you for your efforts in keeping Concordia Parish safe.  The work and the effort that is being put forth by every agency, entity, and leader in this Parish is what makes me proud to be a Concordia Parish resident.

     

    Once again thank you and please don’t hesitate to contact me or my office if you have any questions, concerns, or comments.

     

    Thank You

     

    Timothy Vanier

    OEP Director Concordia Parish

    4001 Carter St, Room 1, Vidalia, LA 71373

    oep@conppj.org

    Office 318-414-1678

    Cell      318-719-2010

  • Louisiana Virus Cases Jump To 347, Spread To Rural Areas

    Louisiana Virus Cases Jump To 347, Spread To Rural Areas

    BATON ROUGE (AP) — The number of people known to be infected with the new coronavirus in Louisiana jumped to 347 in figures the state posted Thursday, up from 280 a day earlier.

    The death toll stood at eight with the latest victim, a resident of St. James Parish.

    The latest numbers showed New Orleans still leading the state in the number of people testing positive for the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, which has been linked to eight Louisiana deaths. There were 231 cases there as of Thursday morning. Tulane Health System in New Orleans said in a news release it planned to shut down an emergency room in the suburb of Metairie on Friday to move staff to its downtown New Orleans campus to deal with “a surge of COVID-19 and suspected COVID-19 patients.”

    Add in neighboring Jefferson Parish with 62 cases, and the cases in other surrounding parishes and the New Orleans metropolitan area had significantly more cases – 315 — than any other metro area in the South, an Associated Press analysis of state health department data shows.

    The Atlanta and Miami metro areas – both with more than 200 cases – are also among communities with soaring numbers. The numbers were tallied from state data using the U.S. Office of Management and Budget’s classification of Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

    But the virus was also evident in other parts of the state, showing up in 17 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes, including northwestern Louisiana’s Bossier and Caddo, with two and seven respectively; southwestern Louisiana’s Lafayette, with 2; East Baton Rouge, with 5.

    Coastal Plaquemines Parish at Louisiana’s southeastern tip, which includes the New Orleans suburban city of Belle Chasse and vast rural landscapes, reported its first case late Wednesday.

    The vast majority of people recover within weeks after catching this virus, and for most people, it causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause severe illness requiring hospitalization.

    Gov. John Bel Edwards cautioned Louisianans to get ready for a surge in coronavirus cases as testing capacity grows statewide.

    Edwards has closed K-12 public schools, bars, gyms, casinos and movie theaters and has limited restaurants to delivery and takeout until at least April 13. Public gatherings of more than 50 people are banned. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has prohibited all public and private gatherings.

    Small businesses struggling with virus-related restrictions will be eligible to apply for low-interest federal disaster loans. Edwards announced Thursday that Louisiana won federal approval for its request to make the U.S. Small Business Administration aid available in all 64 parishes.

    Four of the people who died from the virus lived in the New Orleans retirement home Lambeth House, which has seen a cluster of cases. There have been two other New Orleans deaths, one in Jefferson Parish and the death of a 60-year-old person reported Thursday in St. James.

    Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon issued new regulations requiring health insurers to waive co-pays and deductibles for COVID-19 testing, and banning insurers from requiring prior authorization for testing ordered by doctors. Insurers also must allow early refills of most non-opioid medications.

    Louisiana was readying several state parks to house people who have tested positive for the coronavirus and don’t need hospitalization, but can’t return home because of elderly relatives, homelessness or other reasons. Already, at least 10 people infected with the virus were staying at Jefferson Parish’s Bayou Segnette State Park, Edwards said.

    Also, Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, of Jefferson Parish, announced he now must work remotely on the national coronavirus response because he had an “extended meeting” last week with Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida, who tested positive. Scalise said he does not have any COVID-19 symptoms, but is self-isolating out of caution.

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    McGill reported from New Orleans. Associated Press writer Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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    Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

  • Italian death toll overtakes China’s as virus spreads

    ROME (AP) — The death toll in Italy from the coronavirus overtook China’s on Thursday in a stark illustration of how the outbreak has pivoted toward Europe and the United States.

    Italy, with a population of 60 million, recorded at least 3,405 deaths, or roughly 150 more than in China — a country with a population over 20 times larger.

    Italy reached the bleak milestone the same day that Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged three months ago, recorded no new infections, a sign that the communist country’s draconian lockdowns were a powerful method to stop the virus’ spread.

    On Thursday, a visiting Chinese Red Cross team criticized Italians’ failure to properly quarantine themselves and take the national lockdown seriously.

    Meanwhile, the damage to the world’s largest economy kept piling up, with unemployment claims surging in the United States, while the virus appeared to be opening an alarming new front in Africa, where in less than three weeks it has spread to 35 countries.

    The epidemic has also now reached at least one European head of state, 62-year-old Prince Albert II of the tiny principality of Monaco. The palace announced that he tested positive for the virus but was continuing to work from his office and was being treated by doctors from Princess Grace Hospital, named after his American actress mother.

    In the U.S., Congress rushed to pass a $1 trillion emergency package to shore up the sinking economy and help households pull through the crisis, with the first of two possible rounds of relief checks consisting of payments of $1,000 per adult and $500 for each child.

    The worldwide death toll crept toward 10,000 as the total number of infections topped 220,000, including nearly 85,000 people who have recovered.

    French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe pleaded with people to keep their distance from one another to avoid spreading the virus, even as the crisis pushed them to seek comfort.

    “When you love someone, you should avoid taking them in your arms,” he said in Parliament. “It’s counterintuitive, and it’s painful. The psychological consequences, the way we are living, are very disturbing — but it’s what we must do.”

    COPING WITH THE OUTBREAK:

    The American death toll rose to 160, primarily elderly people.

    Health authorities have cited a variety of reasons for Italy’s high toll, key among them its large population of elderly people, who are particularly susceptible to serious complications from the virus, though severe cases have also been seen in younger patients. Italy has the world’s second-oldest population, and the vast majority of its dead — 87% — were over 70.

    Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, a virologist at Germany’s Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, said Italy’s high death rate could be explained in part by the almost total breakdown of the health system in some areas.

    IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY:

    “That’s what happens when the health system collapses,” he said.

    On a visit to the northern city of Milan, the head of a Chinese Red Cross delegation helping advise Italy said he was shocked to see so many people walking around, using public transportation and eating out.

    Sun Shuopeng said Wuhan saw infections peak only after a month of a strictly enforced lockdown.

    “Right now we need to stop all economic activity and we need to stop the mobility of people,” he said. “All people should be staying at home in quarantine.”

    Aside from the elderly and the sick, most people have mild or moderate symptoms, like a fever or cough, and most recover in a matter of weeks.

    Spain has been the hardest-hit European country after Italy, and in Madrid a four-star hotel began operating as a makeshift hospital for coronavirus patients.

    The director of the group that runs the Ayre GH Colon hotel tweeted: “365 rooms more to help win the war.” The Madrid Hotel Business Association said it has placed 40 hotels with room for 9,000 people at the service of the Madrid region, which has near half of Spain’s 17,000 or so cases.

    In London, home to almost 9 million, the government urged people to stay off public transportation as authorities considered imposing tougher travel restrictions.

    The British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s reserved the first hour of shopping for vulnerable customers, one of many such efforts around the world.

    Jim Gibson, 72, of London, said he found most of his groceries there in a “relatively trauma-free” experience. But he fretted that he hadn’t been able to get the medicine he needed for his wife and himself, and expressed concerns that Britain’s government had been too slow in ramping up testing.

    “You can’t go on ignoring World Health Organization guidelines — if they’re wrong, who the hell is right?” he said. “Let’s have no shilly-shallying.”

    The British government, which was slow to react to the virus, has shifted gears and is now drawing up legislation giving itself new powers to detain people and restrict gatherings. The bill is expected to be approved by Parliament next week.

    Thursday marked the first time since Jan. 20 that Wuhan showed no new locally transmitted cases, a rare glimmer of hope and perhaps a lesson in the strict measures needed to contain the virus.

    Wuhan, which has been under a strict lockdown since January, once was the place where thousands lay sick or dying in hurriedly constructed hospitals. But Chinese authorities said all 34 new cases recorded over the previous day had come from abroad.

    “Today, we have seen the dawn after so many days of hard effort,” said Jiao Yahui, a senior inspector at the National Health Commission.

    Meanwhile, the World Health Organization warned that the virus is spreading quickly in Africa — an especially alarming development, given the poor state of health care in many of its countries.

    “About 10 days ago we had about five countries” with the virus, said WHO’s Africa chief, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti. Now 35 of Africa’s 54 countries have cases, with the total close to 650. It is an “extremely rapid evolution,” she said. The first sub-Saharan Africa case was announced Feb. 28.

    European stock markets were up only slightly after losses in Asia despite a massive 750 billion-euro stimulus package announced overnight by the European Central Bank.

    Wall Street was calm in early trading by the standards of the past few days, when traders — weighing the increasing likelihood of a recession against the huge economic support pledged by global authorities — have caused wild swings.

    With wide swaths of the U.S. economy grinding to a halt, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits surged by 70,000 last week, more than economists expected.

    The U.S. Federal Reserve unveiled measures to support money-market funds and borrowing as investors worldwide rush to build up dollars and cash.

    Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, along with Honda and Toyota, announced on Wednesday that they would close all of their factories in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The shutdown of Detroit’s Big Three alone will idle about 150,000 workers.

    More borders closed, leaving tens of thousands of tourists wondering how they would get home. In the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand shut out tourists.

    Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei planned to pardon 10,000 more prisoners — including an unknown number of political detainees— to combat the virus. The country, where more than 1,100 people have already died, previously freed 85,000 prisoners on temporary leave.

    In Austria, the province of Tyrol put 279 municipalities under quarantine because of a large number of infections, barring people from leaving towns or villages except to go to work.

  • 5 Activity Ideas During While at Home

    5 Activity Ideas During While at Home

    The novel coronavirus, or Covid-19, has many Americans feeling trapped in their own homes. Across the nation, city governments have shut down all but the most essential services. Movies theaters have ceased operations, and most restaurants are only accepting take-out orders. As many families are being forced to stay home from work and school, they are struggling to find ways to occupy their time. Movies in bed are good for a while, but over the course of the coming weeks, people will need to find original ways to occupy their time. While the usual hangout spots may all be closed, there is plenty to do during the outbreak to kill some time, and maybe even make this forced stay-cation enjoyable.

    1. Go outside

    In Mississippi, we are finally on the turning point of the season. Warm weather and less rain have made the outdoors much more inviting than it has been during the last few months. Sunshine is the best medicine, if not for Covid-19, then at least for the boredom that comes from sitting inside for months on end. We don’t know how long we will have to stay home, so this is the perfect opportunity to go outdoors and get some fresh air. Just remember to keep any walking buddies at a safe distance!

    1. Virtual tours

    If the outdoors aren’t really your thing, but you still want something more stimulating to do than watch Netflix for the fourth day in a row, then try a virtual tour. Many major museums have their facilities mapped out and viewable through either google maps, or by going through their website. The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History’s virtual tour can be found at this link: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour They have photos of all current and past exhibits. The Georgia Aquarium has live feeds of all their animals and exhibits available here: https://www.georgiaaquarium.org/webcam/ocean-voyager/

    1. Board Games

    Board games and similar family games are a great way to pass the time when you’re stuck at home. If you don’t own a board game, a good idea would be to get games that take longer to play such as monopoly or risk. These games require more strategy and can be replayed more than a simple game like UNO.

    1. Home improvement

    This is the perfect time to hammer out some of those old projects that have been planned for months but have never been started. Repairs and maintenance are the first projects that come to mind, but also try stretching those creative muscles and do some decorating. Painting is an excellent way to pass the time. New colors make the house interesting and fresh, which is important when you’re home all the time, and the act of painting can lead to inspiration for other projects.

    1. Sleep

    Experts agree that 8 hours of sleep is important for health and wellness, but during the workweek, most of us just don’t get that. This is the chance to catch up on some well-deserved rest. The weekly stresses that we all go through keep us so busy that most of the time we don’t realize how tired we are, which is why many experts are recommending that during this time of being stuck at home to catch up on sleep. Once you are rested, you may find yourself feeling like doing some of the other activities on this list, and lying in bed watching movies will probably seem a little less appealing.