Today, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that Vice President Mike Pence confirmed Louisiana will receive an additional 200 ventilators from the federal Strategic National Stockpile in response to the coronavirus pandemic. With this commitment, Louisiana will have received a total of 350 ventilators from SNS. They are expected to arrive soon.
Today’s reported positive cases have reached 12, 496, an increase of 2,199 since yesterday, and 409 deaths, an increase of 39 since yesterday.
“We are grateful to both President Donald Trump and Vice President Pence for keeping Louisiana at the forefront of this fight against COVID-19 and appreciate them understanding the necessity of these ventilators for the survival of our people, especially in light of today’s sobering numbers. I spoke to the Vice President this morning and reiterated Louisiana’s ongoing needs,” said Gov. Edwards.
“Based on our modeling, we know that we will exceed our capacity to deliver health care to those who need it, first in the New Orleans area, but because of these ventilators and others that we are sourcing around the world, we will be able to prolong that inevitable day and have fewer people go with unmet medical needs.
In addition to the ventilators, Louisiana is getting several hundred thousand surgical gowns for the medical community in the Greater New Orleans area. To date, Louisiana has received a total of 553 ventilators. The first shipment from SNS of 150 ventilators was announced on March 30 and arrived days later. The remaining ventilators came from private vendors and three from the Louisiana National Guard.
“However, the degree to which we are able to prevent overwhelming our hospitals depends on people’s compliance of the Stay at Home Order and other mitigation measures,” Gov. Edwards said. “We know that social distancing efforts work and will in fact flatten the curve. I am imploring all of our people to stay home, slow the spread and save lives.”
