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Gov. Edwards cautiously optimistic in state's fight against COVID-19

3 years 11 months 1 week ago Monday, April 06 2020 Apr 6, 2020 April 06, 2020 8:42 PM April 06, 2020 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Monday marked four weeks since Louisiana reported its first case of coronavirus. With cases now north of 14,000, Gov. John Bel Edwards says things are beginning to look promising. 

"We are starting to see real signs that these mitigation measures that we put into place weeks ago are starting to bear real results," Edwards said.

Those mitigation measures mixed with compliance from residents across the state and the surging of healthcare have Edwards cautiously optimistic.

"We're hopeful that we're seeing the beginning of the flattening of the curve and that these efforts are going to continue through additional compliance from people across the state," Edwards said.

Edwards also points to the state's rapid rise in testing. As of Monday, 69,166 tests had been administered statewide, putting Louisiana second per capita in testing.

"We have a visibility across the state of Louisiana that is pretty much unmatched across the United States," Edwards said. "As a result, as we get an idea of just how much COVID we actually have, the percentage of people being hospitalized and the percentage of people who are dying are getting much, much, much closer to the average. What you would typically see."

At his daily press conference, Edwards also praised healthcare workers for helping to keep hospitals from exceeding capacity. 

"They are reducing the number of people who have to ever get on a ventilator in the first place," Edwards said. "They're doing a good job decreasing the number of days that the average patient has to stay on a ventilator."

Even with good news, Edwards reiterated that residents cannot become complacent or think the work is done.

"The fear is that I'm telling people that and they're going to say 'oh the task at hand is accomplished and we can go back to doing whatever it is that we normally do and behaving as we normally would,'" Edwards said. 

"That is exactly the wrong answer. I say that because if we've started to flatten the curve, it is only because of the mitigation measures. It is only because of the social distancing and the improved hygiene practices."

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