LUY-Development

Tag: covid19

  • Texas Troopers Begin Screening Travelers From Louisiana

    Texas Troopers Begin Screening Travelers From Louisiana

    Sunday, April 5th is the first day troopers conducted the screenings

    ORANGE, Texas (AP) — State troopers started stopping and screening travelers entering Southeast Texas from Louisiana on Sunday, in accordance with an executive order from Gov. Greg Abbot.

    Troopers stopped vehicles at a visitors center on Interstate 10 near Orange, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Houston, and required travelers to complete a travel form, said Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Stephanie Davis, who told KFDM-TV that no one was being turned back.“The established screening stations will take place on major roadways … including interstate highways and other high-volume routes,” Davis said in a statement.

    Sunday is the first day troopers conducted the screenings, a week after Abbott’s order was issued, Davis said.

    The order also calls for travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving in the state.

    State health officials on Sunday reported at least 6,669 cases and 118 COVID-19 deaths in Texas, up from 6,100 cases and at least 105 fatalities reported Saturday.

    For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause pneumonia. The World Health Organization said last week that 95% of the deaths in Europe were of people over 60.

  • Ex-NFL Kicker, Saints Hero Tom Dempsey Dies At 73

    Ex-NFL Kicker, Saints Hero Tom Dempsey Dies At 73

    Dempsey died late Saturday while struggling with complications from the COVID19 coronavirus.

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former NFL kicker Tom Dempsey, who played in the NFL despite being born without toes on his kicking foot and made a record 63-yard field goal, died late Saturday while struggling with complications from the new coronavirus, his daughter said. He was 73 years old.

    The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate first reported Dempsey’s death. Ashley Dempsey said Sunday that her father, who has resided in an assisted living home for several years after being diagnosed with dementia, tested positive for the coronavirus a little more than a week ago.

    The Orleans Parish coroner has yet to release an official cause of death.

    Dempsey’s game-winning field goal against Detroit on Nov. 8, 1970, stood as an NFL record for 43 years until the Broncos’ Matt Prater broke it with a 64-yarder in Denver in 2013.

    Dempsey spent 11 seasons in the NFL: His first two seasons were with New Orleans (1969-70), the next four with Philadelphia, then two with the Los Angeles Rams, one with the Houston Oilers and the final two with Buffalo. He retired after the 1979 season.

    “Tom’s life spoke directly to the power of the human spirit and exemplified his resolute determination to not allow setbacks to impede following his dreams and aspirations,” Saints owner Gayle Benson said in a statement. “He exemplified the same fight and fortitude in recent years as he battled valiantly against illnesses but never wavered and kept his trademark sense of humor.”

    Dempsey was born in Milwaukee without four fingers on his right hand and without toes on his right foot. He kicked straight on with a flat-front shoe that drew protests from some who saw the specially made kicking shoe as an unfair advantage. Former Dallas Cowboys President Tex Schramm compared the shoe to “the head of a golf club.”

    But Dempsey would counter that by saying he was merely doing the best he could to use the foot with which he was born, and for the most part, NFL officials, including then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle, agreed. Still, in 1977, the NFL passed what is widely known as the “The Dempsey Rule,” mandating that shoes worn by players with “an artificial limb on his kicking leg must have a kicking surface that conforms to that of a normal kicking shoe.”

    Dempsey returned to New Orleans after retiring from the league. About seven years ago, he was diagnosed with dementia and later moved to an assisted living home, where he contracted the coronavirus in March during the pandemic that has hit the city — and nursing home — particularly hard. He is survived by wife Carlene, three children, a sister and grandchildren.

    His kick has remained part of Saints lore and for a long time stood as one of the greatest moments in the history of a franchise that didn’t make the playoffs until its 21st season in 1987, and didn’t win a playoff game until the 2000 season.

    At the time of the kick, the Superdome had yet to be build and the Saints played home games in the old Tulane Stadium, which was demolished in 1979.

    The Lions led 17-16 after a short field goal with 11 seconds left.

    With no timeouts, the Saints managed to move the ball to their own 45 with 2 seconds left after Billy Kilmer completed a pass to Al Dodd along the sideline.

    According to a media reports, special teams coach Don Heinrich was heard barking, “Tell Stumpy to get ready to go in and kick a long one.”

    At that time, goalposts were on the goal line, not behind the end zone. The spot of the kick was the Saints 37.

    “I was more concerned about kicking it straight because I felt I could handle the distance,” Dempsey told the Times-Picayune. “I knew I was going to get a perfect snap from Jackie Burkett and a perfect hold from Joe Scarpati. It was all up to me. I hit it sweet.”

    Kilmer told the Times-Picayune he remembers standing on the sideline seeing Lions players across the field laughing as Dempsey lined up for the momentous kick.

    “They thought Tom had no chance,” Kilmer said.

    But Dempsey ended up carried off the field on the shoulders of teammates and recalled spending all night at a Bourbon Street bar, celebrating.

    “We were there, with all the guys, until the wee hours,” he said. “From what I can recall, I had a great time.”

    Both the shoe with which Dempsey kicked the 63-yarder and the ball are in the Saints Hall of Fame in New Orleans, into which Dempsey was inducted in 1989. The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, has another of Dempsey’s specially made kicking shoes, but Dempsey wanted the mementos of the record-breaking kick to remain in New Orleans.

  • Louisiana Glass, 3D Artists Making Ventilator Splitters, Face Shields

    Louisiana Glass, 3D Artists Making Ventilator Splitters, Face Shields

    The artists are creating the pieces for medical professionals to use when personal protection equipment and ventilators have run out and it’s a matter of life or death, time and urgency

    SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — Sanctuary Arts School and Glass Studio, in Shreveport, is leading a statewide initiative to donate emergency-use equipment to hospital workers and first responders caring for coronavirus COVID-19 patients.

    Ark-La-Tex 3D Technology, also in Shreveport, is collaborating with the nonprofit to produce 3D printed attachments for face shields. Sanctuary will be distributing splitters for ventilators which would allow multiple patients to use one machine.

    Hospitals across the United States have declared the need for more equipment to protect their medical staff and care for patients with COVID-19.

    The artists are creating the pieces for medical professionals to use when personal protection equipment and ventilators have run out and it’s a matter of life or death, time and urgency, said Eric Hess, co-founder of Sanctuary Arts School and Glass Studio.

    “In a time of emergency, you do what you need to do to protect your medical community and protect the patients,” Hess said. “These doctors don’t have the supplies and are basically doing whatever they need to do to survive and continue to provide the best care they can in the community.”

    MAKE GLASS IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

    The concept is spurred from a 2006 study, “A Single Ventilator for Multiple Simulated Patients to Meet Disaster Surge” by medical professionals Greg Neyman and Charlene Babcock Irvin for the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

    The study concluded: “A single ventilator may be quickly modified to ventilate four simulated adults for a limited time. The volumes delivered in this simulation should be able to sustain four 70-kg individuals. While further study is necessary, this pilot study suggests significant potential for the expanded use of a single ventilator during cases of disaster surge involving multiple casualties with respiratory failure.”

    Hess was in self-quarantine when a friend shared information about a glass artist making ventilator splitters in Boulder, Colorado. After further research and discussion, Hess and his business partner, Michelle Pennington, decided to make the emergency supplies would be a way to help and possibly save lives.

    “Glass artists all over the country now are starting to develop these,” Hess said.

    The splitter is a Y-shaped attachment made from durable, medical-grade glass rods or tubes using the framework technique. Splitters connect to ventilator hoses and may supply oxygen to two to four patients at once and may be used multiple times.

    Ark-La-Tex 3D Technology is using a heavy-duty, biodegradable plastic to create headpieces that connects to a clear face shield. The designers will add the clear face shield, as well, to deliver a completed shield, said Matt Hopper, co-owner.

    Several orders are in motion for Louisiana hospitals as the medical industry prepares for the worst as cases of coronavirus persist.

    William Breaux is the manager of respiratory care at West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, outside of New Orleans. He and fellow staff and board members are considering alternatives in the case of a shortage and plan to test the glass ventilator splitter.

    “This is going to give us another option if we don’t have enough ventilators,” Breaux said.

    In a hypothetical situation, if there is one ventilator left, a doctor may have to tell a 70-year-old patient that the last ventilator is going to a 27-year-old patient, Breaux said. The splitter is to avoid the worst-case scenario.

    “It’s better than going, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have a ventilator for you and you’re going to die,’” said Breaux. “It may come to that. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

    It will be up to the medical facilities to determine if the products are something they can use. It’s a novel concept and they must consider liability; however, the pandemic has called for unprecedented measures.

    “This is what we call thinking outside the box,” Breaux said. “This is not something that probably would be approved.”

    A physician will have to be willing to try it in an emergency circumstance, which has a high probability during the pandemic, he said.

    On March 26, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the approval of a policy allowing two coronavirus patients to use a single ventilator. The New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s split-ventilation protocol was approved by the New York State Department of Health, according to ABC News.

    Although controversial, it’s better than nothing when it comes down to saving a patient’s life.

    “It’s not approved but we’re doing a lot of things that we wouldn’t normally do because of what’s going on,” Breaux said.

    MEDICAL SUPPLIES AND DEMAND

    In addition to the splitters, the Louisiana artists are creating face shields using 3D-printed frames.

    There are more than 3,000 out for order, including equipment for first responders and service professionals, such as firefighters, police, EMTs, social workers, and senior living staff throughout the state. Hess expects requests will quickly top 30,000 items.

    Orders include 200 face shields for LSU anesthesiologists with up to 6,000 needed to supply all the doctors, Hess said. Two orders of 200 and 250 face shields will be sent to groups of nurses in New Orleans.

    The orders continue to come in and the artists are stepping up production to meet the demand, and possibly extend services to hospitals outside of the state.

    New Orleans is a high priority as they have a higher number of COVID-19 cases and facing a shortage of equipment, Hess said.

    Sanctuary enlisted flameworkers throughout Louisiana to make the splitters—and possibly other glass-based items needed by the medical community during the coronavirus pandemic.

    Flameworking is different from glass blowing. The artists make the splitters by hand using a miniature flame and glass to manipulate the medical-grade borosilicate glass. The technique allows the artist to be precise in the glasswork, Hess said.

    Ark-La-Tex 3D Technology has four machines in production in its shop and a fellow 3D print designer is loaning another two to three printers. Bossier Parish Community College’s Division of Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and Louisiana State University-Shreveport’s Technology Lab will produce some of the items using several of their printers. About a dozen machines will be going at one time, Hopper said. The goal is to have hundreds made hourly to meet demands, Hess said.

    “The more 3D printers we have the more we can produce these items,” Hess said.

    In the outreach initiative, medical professions are asked for a list of other needed items, so the artist may determine if they can assist in making other products.

    “We also have the ability to print other parts as needed. We’re on standby depending on what the hospitals and doctors are asking for,” Hopper said.

    The equipment is of no cost to the hospitals. All artists are donating their time, labor, and materials.

    Public donations are requested to continue production. Proceeds will be used to cover glass and plastic material and distribution costs.

    “We’re just trying to make sure the artists don’t deplete their funds by buying the glass and the plastic and the materials they need to produce the (equipment) for the hospitals,” Hess said.

    Ark-La-Tex 3D Technology has worked with medical professionals before on projects. The team has partnered with Shriners Hospital for Children in Shreveport to make a couple of 3D printed prosthetic hands, Hopper said. The local company also strategized how to create 3D scans of amputee parts to transform into 3D models to create a form-fitting cast that can be then be used for prosthetics, such as arms and legs.

    The project is outside of Sanctuary’s traditional functions, but Hess is driven to support those on the front lines of the pandemic.

    “I’m really worried about the mental situation in the future of these doctors,” Hess said. “Imagine being somewhere in medical care and not only are you concerned about you and bringing these diseases home to your family, but you’re there and you run out of a ventilator and all of a sudden someone’s gasping for air and you can’t help them. You have no more ventilators. I can’t even begin to imagine what these people in the medical community are going to have to deal with emotionally.”

    Donations may be sent to Sanctuary Arts School and Glass Studio via PayPal.

    By TIANA KENNELL, The Shreveport Times

     

  • Louisiana Shrimp Association Donates Shrimp To Food Pantry

    Louisiana Shrimp Association Donates Shrimp To Food Pantry

    A food pantry in New Orleans has received nearly 2,500 pounds of shrimp to help families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Second Harvest Food Bank is the recipient of the donation, announced Friday by Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. The donation, which will cover a few pounds each for families, was given by Ronnie Anderson and David and Kim Chauvin, owners of Bluewater Shrimp Company, based in Dulac, Louisiana.

    “I’ve always told people outside Louisiana that when they are here, we will treat them like family. This donation is an example of how we in Louisiana treat each other like family with leaders in the Louisiana shrimp industry stepping up to help in this time of need,” Nungesser said.

    Second Harvest supports more than 700 community partners and programs across 23 parishes, distributing more than 32 million meals to more than 210,000 people annually, according to its website.

    Nungesser said he will encourage state government to also purchase all excess inventories of Louisiana shrimp to send to the Second Harvest Food Bank. That move, he said, follows his earlier request to Louisiana’s congressional delegation to include Louisiana Gulf Coast seafood products on a list of approved purchases for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Doing that, he said, will help the state’s seafood industry which produces $2.4 billion in product annually. One in every 70 jobs in the state is related to the seafood industry, he said.

  • Mississippi Churches Take Services Online, Into Parking Lots

    Mississippi Churches Take Services Online, Into Parking Lots

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Some Mississippi houses of worship are offering online services during the coronavirus pandemic. Others are inviting people to sit in vehicles outside the sanctuary to have socially distant prayer and maybe to hear a pastor’s message over the radio.

    Gov. Tate Reeves says he does not believe government has the power to shut down churches, but he strongly prefers that people not gather in parking lots for worship.

    “It’s just hard to overcome our natural tendency to get out and say hello,” Reeves said Friday.

    Mississippi is under the Republican governor’s statewide stay-at-home order that began Friday evening and extends until the morning of April 20. People are being told to minimize their errands to essentials like grocery shopping.

    The state Health Department said Saturday that Mississippi has more than 1,400 confirmed coronavirus cases and 35 deaths. The state has about 3 million residents.

    Many people moving around their communities may not know they have contracted the virus until well after they’ve infected others. Most infected people experience mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks, but a fraction suffering more severe illnesses can require ventilators to survive. As the caseload rapidly grows, hospitals are bracing for a wave of patients.

    Mississippi public schools remain closed through at least April 17. If that decision remains in place, the first day back would be April 20, when the stay-at-home order is set to expire. Reeves said Friday that he will continue to evaluate whether to extend the school closures, but he didn’t specify how soon he might make a decision.

    A Jackson attorney who is in isolation at home as she recovers from COVID-19 said people in Mississippi need to take the virus more seriously. Felisha Sheppard said she got tested after losing her sense of taste and smell, then felt she had overreacted because she lacked other symptoms.

    The test came back positive. Sheppard told WJTV-TV she doesn’t know how she got exposed to the virus.

    “I have friends who are still accumulating with one another,” Sheppard said. ”I started thinking, to most people, this is just an elusive idea. It’s happening in other places.”

    By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
    Associated Press

     

  • Concordia Parish School Board is now delivering meals to student’s home’s

    Concordia Parish School Board is now delivering meals to student’s home’s

    Concordia Parish is committed to working to assist families with meals for school-aged students during this unprecedented pandemic associated with COVID-19 and we continue to assess the ability to provide assistance while adhering to guidance from the CDC and other state agencies to stop the spread.

    Concordia Parish and the Healthy School Food Collaborative will provide shelf-stable, easily prepared meals to students that attend Concordia Parish. Meals will be delivered directly to your residence.

    Click this link and fill out the form in order to sign up your Concordia Parish student to receive delivered meals to your residence.
  • Son: Jazz Great Ellis Marsalis Jr. Dead At 85 From Pneumonia Brought On By COVID-19

    Son: Jazz Great Ellis Marsalis Jr. Dead At 85 From Pneumonia Brought On By COVID-19

    Four of Ellis’s six sons are accomplished musicians.

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ellis Marsalis Jr., the jazz pianist, teacher and patriarch of a New Orleans musical clan, has died after battling pneumonia brought on by the new coronavirus, one of his six sons said late Wednesday. He was 85.

    “Pneumonia was the actual thing that caused his demise. But it was pneumonia brought on by COVID-19,” Ellis Marsalis III confirmed in an Associated Press phone interview.

    He said he drove Sunday from Baltimore to be with his father as he was hospitalized in Louisiana, which has been hit hard by the outbreak. Others in the family spent time with him, too.

    Four of the jazz patriarch’s six sons are musicians: Wynton, trumpeter, is America’s most prominent jazz spokesman as artistic director of jazz at New York’s Lincoln Center. Branford, saxophonist, led The Tonight Show band and toured with Sting. Delfeayo, a trombonist, is a prominent recording producer and performer. And Jason, a percussionist, has made a name for himself with his own band and as an accompanist. Ellis III, who decided music wasn’t his gig, is a photographer-poet in Baltimore.

    “He went out the way he lived: embracing reality,” Wynton Marsalis tweeted, alongside pictures of his father.

    In a statement, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said of the man who continued to perform regularly until December: “Ellis Marsalis was a legend. He was the prototype of what we mean when we talk about New Orleans jazz. He was a teacher, a father, and an icon — and words aren’t sufficient to describe the art, the joy and the wonder he showed the world.”

    Because Marsalis opted to stay in New Orleans for most of his career, his reputation was limited until his sons became famous and brought him the spotlight, along with new recording contracts and headliner performances on television and tour.

    “He was like the coach of jazz. He put on the sweatshirt, blew the whistle and made these guys work,” said Nick Spitzer, host of public radio’s American Routes and a Tulane University anthropology professor.

    The Marsalis “family band” seldom played together when the boys were younger but went on tour in 2003 in a spinoff of a family celebration, which became a PBS special when the elder Marsalis retired from teaching at the University of New Orleans.

    Harry Connick Jr., one of his students at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, was a guest. He’s one of many now-famous jazz musicians who passed through Marsalis’ classrooms. Others include trumpeters Nicholas Payton and Terence Blanchard, saxophonists Donald Harrison and Victor Goines, and bassist Reginald Veal.

    Marsalis was born in New Orleans, son of the operator of a hotel where he met touring black musicians who couldn’t stay at the segregated downtown hotels where they performed. He played saxophone in high school; he also played piano by the time he went to Dillard University.

    Although New Orleans was steeped in traditional jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll was the new sound in the 1950s, Marsalis preferred bebop and modern jazz.

    Spitzer described Marsalis as a “modernist in a town of traditionalists.”

    “His great love was jazz a la bebop — he was a lover of Thelonious Monk and the idea that bebop was a music of freedom. But when he had to feed his family, he played R&B and soul and rock ‘n’ roll on Bourbon Street,” Spitzer said.

    The musician’s college quartet included drummer Ed Blackwell, clarinetist Alvin Batiste and saxophonist Harold Battiste, playing modern.

    Ornette Coleman was in town at the time. In 1956, when Coleman headed to California, Marsalis and the others went along, but after a few months Marsalis returned home. He told the New Orleans Times-Picayune years later, when he and Coleman were old men, that he never figured out what a pianist could do behind the free form of Coleman’s jazz.

    Back in New Orleans, Marsalis joined the Marine Corps and was assigned to accompany soloists on the service’s weekly TV programs on CBS in New York. There, he said, he learned to handle all kinds of music styles.

    Returning home, he worked at the Playboy Club and ventured into running his own club, which went bust. In 1967 trumpeter Al Hirt hired him. When not on Bourbon Street, Hirt’s band appeared on national TV — headline shows on The Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show, among others.

    Marsalis got into education about the same time, teaching improvisation at Xavier University in New Orleans. In the mid-1970s, he joined the faculty at the New Orleans magnet high school and influenced a new generation of jazz musicians.

    When asked how he could teach something as free-wheeling as jazz improvisation, Marsalis once said, “We don’t teach jazz, we teach students.”

    In 1986 he moved to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. In 1989, the University of New Orleans lured him back to set up a jazz studies program.

    Marsalis retired from UNO in 2001 but continued performing, particularly at Snug Harbor, a small club that anchored the city’s contemporary jazz scene — frequently backing young promising musicians.

    His melodic style, with running improvisations in the right hand, has been described variously as romantic, contemporary, or simply “Louisiana jazz.” He was always on acoustic piano, never electric, and even in interpreting old standards there’s a clear link to the driving bebop chords and rhythms of his early years.

    He founded a record company, ELM, but his recording was limited until his sons became famous. After that he joined them and others on mainstream labels and headlined his own releases, many full of his own compositions.

    He often played at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. And for more than three decades he played two 75-minute sets every Friday night at Snug Harbor until he decided it was exhausting. Even then, he still performed on occasion as a special guest.

    On Wednesday night, Ellis III recalled how his father taught him the meaning of integrity before he even knew the word.

    He and Delfeayo, neither of them yet 10, had gone to hear their father play at a club. Only one man — sleeping and drunk — was in the audience for the second set. The boys asked why they couldn’t leave.

    “He looked at us and said, ‘I can’t leave. I have a gig.’ While he’s playing, he said, ‘A gig is a deal. I’m paid to play this set. I’m going to play this set. It doesn’t matter that nobody’s here.’ ”

    Marsalis’ wife, Dolores, died in 2017. He is survived by his sons Branford, Wynton, Ellis III, Delfeayo, Mboya and Jason.

  • Governor Tate Reeves Issues a Statewide Shelter-In-Place

    Governor Tate Reeves Issues a Statewide Shelter-In-Place

    JACKSON — Today, Governor Tate Reeves signed a new executive order establishing a statewide shelter-in-place for Mississippi to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health of all who call our state home.

    The Mississippi Department of Health determined that our state has now reached a critical point in the cycle of the outbreak, and Governor Reeves announced his decision to issue the shelter-in-place order for Mississippi at a press conference this afternoon.

    Mississippi is rapidly increasing testing and strictly enforcing quarantines for anyone that investigators believe has been exposed to the virus. The shelter-in-place will begin this Friday, April 3, 2020 at 5:00 PM and be in effect until Monday, April 20, 2020 at 8:00 AM.

    You can view the press conference live on our Facebook page here.

    Here are Governor Reeves’ remarks from today’s press conference:

    GOVERNOR REEVES: This is a somber time—for our country and our state. We are all in grave danger, from coast to coast. As leaders, our top priority is and always will be the safety of our citizens. 

    Every day, for the last several weeks, I have asked our health experts whether it is time for the ultimate action of a “shelter in place” order statewide. Yesterday, for the first time, we got the answer we had been anticipating. They told me we are now at the point in Mississippi’s cycle where such drastic restrictions are required. Today is the day. We are announcing a shelter-in-place order. It will go into effect on Friday at 5:00 PM.

    I will let our top health official, Dr. Dobbs, explain his thought process behind the timing. I just want to offer a simple message to Mississippi:

    This will not be easy for anyone, but we believe it is right. We know that there are many people who are scared: wondering what this means for their wages and their ability to put food on the table. We are here for you and working hard to help. Mississippi will not allow you to fall without a hand to help you back up.

    We know that there are some who still do not have a healthy fear of this virus. They are wrong, and they are risking lives if they do not take this seriously.

    This order will be enforced. It will be taken very, very seriously. It will not be forever. We will get through this and open our state back up as soon as our health experts tell me it is wise.

    Our goal is to prevent our health care system from being overwhelmed. I pray that all of our orders and preparations will be enough. We believe that this is the right tool at the right time to save lives.

    Today, this is the best course of action for Mississippi. I’ll turn it over to Dr. Dobbs for some more information.

    In this latest executive order, the Governor lays out the guidelines of the statewide shelter-in-place to slow the spread of COVID-19, including:

    • Individuals are to stay at home except for the limited allowances in the executive order.
    • When outside of their homes, people must follow social distancing guidelines by maintaining a 6-foot distance from others and avoid groups of 10 or more.
    • Evictions are suspended, though people are still required to pay any rent or make any mortgage payments.
    • All nonessential businesses are to stop all activities other than those necessary for minimum operations (e.g. payroll, health insurance, security) and enabling employees to work from home.
    • Social and other non-essential gatherings in groups of more than 10 people must be cancelled or rescheduled.
    • Restaurants and bars may only remain open for drive-thru, curbside, and/or delivery service.
    • People may leave their homes only to perform essential activities, such as caring for someone in the vulnerable population, getting food or necessary supplies, and working for an essential business.
    • Individual outdoor recreation is encouraged, but not group recreation or activities such as soccer or basketball games.

     

     

  • Louisiana Covid-19 Case Update 4.1.2020

    Louisiana Covid-19 Case Update 4.1.2020

    Louisiana saw an almost 30 percent rise in deaths from COVID-19 in the 24 hours between noon Monday and noon Tuesday, according to the latest data from the state Department of Health.

    In its Tuesday report, the department showed the death toll for COVID-19 rose by 54 to 239 since its Monday update.

    The latest numbers show 6,424 cases of the coronavirus identified in the state. Of those, 1,498 of those patients are hospitalized, with 490 requiring a ventilator to breathe.

    http://ldh.la.gov/Coronavirus/

  • Mississippi Gov Issues Stay-Home Order For 1 Of 82 Counties

    Mississippi Gov Issues Stay-Home Order For 1 Of 82 Counties

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued his first stay-at-home order Tuesday against the new coronavirus, but it is only for one of the state’s 82 counties.

    Reeves said Lauderdale County, on the state line with Alabama, has seen a recent rapid increase in positive tests for the highly contagious virus.

    The mayor of Gulfport, meanwhile, set what he calls a “safer at home” order for his own coastal city, saying that people have “selfishly” ignored recommendations not to congregate in large groups.

    “We can choose to endure 4-6 weeks of debilitating hardship, or 6-8 months of devastating quarantine,” Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes said in a statement Tuesday. “Based upon trends around the country, matters are likely to get worse, before they get better. While this ‘inconvenience’ has cramped our style, the sad fact is, it’s likely to start killing our friends and neighbors. It’s that serious.”

    The governor’s order for Lauderdale County begins at 10 p.m. Tuesday and lasts for two weeks. Reeves and the state epidemiologist, Dr. Paul Byers, said a nursing home there is considered a hot spot for the virus.

    They would not release the name of the nursing home but said employees, residents, families and others who have been in contact with the home have been notified. Byers said the Health Department is also working to identify people who have been in contact with those testing positive for the virus and is asking them to self-quarantine.

    Reeves said he could issue more stay-at-home orders for other parts of Mississippi if test results show other hot spots developing.

    “There are those who believe that government ought to take over and run everything,” said Reeves, a Republican. “There are those of us who are going to take a data-driven approach.”

    Reeves said Byers and the state health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, have recommended that he evaluate which parts of the state are seeing faster growth in cases as he decides whether to put more limits on people’s movements.

    A mayor in northeast Mississippi, Jason Shelton of Tupelo, criticized Reeves for issuing an order that affects only one county.

    “The businesses in Lauderdale County are simply losing customers to surrounding counties and BTW covid doesn’t stop at the county line … the hodgepodge approach is baffling,” Shelton, a Democrat, said Tuesday on Twitter.

    The state Health Department on Tuesday updated Mississippi’s confirmed coronavirus caseload to at least 937 people and 20 deaths. Neighboring Louisiana has one of the fastest-growing caseloads in the U.S., and people commute between the two states.

    Because testing remains limited as the outbreak grows, many people moving around their communities may not know they’ve contracted the virus until well after they’ve infected others. Most infected people experience mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks, but a fraction of people suffering more severe illnesses can require respirators to survive, and as as the caseload rapidly grows, hospitals are bracing for a wave of patients.

    Reeves issued an executive order last week telling people to avoid gatherings of 10 or more and broadly defining which businesses are so “essential” that they can remain open. That order said restaurants can offer carry-out or delivery meals but must close their dining rooms unless they’re able to keep 10 or fewer people, including staff, at least 6 feet (2 meters) apart. Reeves said it is OK for cities and counties to set tighter restrictions, and several have done so.

    Reeves’s order for Lauderdale County allows essential businesses such as grocery stores and pharmacies to remain open, and it allows people to leave home to go to those places. The order tells other businesses to continue only their necessary operations such as security, payroll and health insurance administration and to let employees work from home. It tells people to cancel or reschedule all nonessential gatherings of 10 or more people. It also eliminates the limited dine-in option for bars and restaurants in the county.

    Lauderdale County is home to a naval air station and is a commercial hub in largely rural eastern Mississippi, with people from Alabama also driving there to work and shop.

    Asked if he is concerned that Lauderdale County residents will ignore his stay-at-home order and go shopping in other parts of the state, Reeves said: “I am confident that Mississippians are smart enough, are patriotic enough, are paying attention to what we are saying.”

    Hewes’s stay-home order in Gulfport takes effect Tuesday night and does not have an ending date. It says people may go to grocery stores and pharmacies but they should not visit friends or family unless there’s an urgent need. It also has a nighttime curfew.

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