Louisiana is 'days away' from ambulances unable to transport to overwhelmed hospitals
Louisiana’s hospitals are struggling with an avalanche of coronavirus cases that threatens to crater the state’s health care delivery system.
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Louisiana reported 65 new deaths and 13,239 cases of COVID-19 cases over the weekend. The number of hospitalized with COVID-19 continues to climb, setting daily records. As of Sunday there were 2,956 patients hospitalized across the state. The health department says 90 percent of those patients are unvaccinated.
In an interview with CBS News' David Begnaud, Dr. Charles Burnell said that paramedics in Acadiana have already started "treating in place," meaning that they are treating patients at home after deeming that they would not benefit from being brought to a hospital.
"We haven't had to refuse anyone transport yet," Burnell said. "We are days away from that happening right now. Less than a week."
Gov. John Bel Edwards warned that Louisiana's hospitals are struggling with an avalanche of coronavirus cases that threatens to crater the state's health care delivery system. State and local health care leaders are increasingly sounding the alarm about the risks of overloaded facilities with too few staff to handle the crush of coronavirus patients on top of the car crash victims, heart attack patients, and others.
