LAFAYETTE, La. — The Lafayette Consolidated Government held its Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) daily press briefing on Wednesday at city hall.
LCG officials provided an update on the on-going COVID-19 public health emergency with 285 reported cases on a base of 7,310 tests. There are now 10 fatalities in Lafayette Parish and 13 new COVID-19 cases since Tuesday.
"While we have seen some encouraging trends, today's new cases and fatalities are a serious reminder to us all that this public health emergency is ongoing and the solution depends on all of us," said Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory.
Guillory also spoke on the fact that Easter is this Sunday and many residents may be tempted to hold large family gatherings to celebrate the religious holiday.
However, he urged residents to remain diligent and maintain the social distancing measures and adhere to the governor's Stay At Home Order.
"It is essential that we are diligent and vigilant with respect to social distancing this holiday weekend," said Guillory.
Guillory asked residents to not hold gatherings during Holy Week or during the Easter weekend.
"We have made some solid progress over the last three weeks and we remain cautiously optimistic about the trends we are seeing in the data," said Guillory. "It would be a tragedy if we were to suddenly a see spike in cases and fatalities a couple of weeks from now right when we are hoping that the emergency declarations will be lifted."
LCG Medical Director Dr. Doug Clement, who also serves as the emergency room director at Our Lady of Lourde's Hospital, also answered questions about local hospitals and their preparations for the posssible surge of patients requiring intensive care treatment.
"We’re assuming the peak occurred possibly 2-3 days ago," said Clement. "And hopefully what we’re seeing now is the lag between new cases and the ICU admissions. We’re assuming right now that the number of ICU beds we have right now available will be enough to be able to satisfy that surge that’s coming."
As of noon on April 8, the Louisiana Department of Health says there are now has 17,030 confirmed cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). LDH reported that 652 people in the state have died of the disease. LDH reported a total of 1,983 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized, and of those, 490 patients require ventilation.
Read the full breakdown of cases from LDH here.
Watch Wednesday's full press briefing below.
