Although Louisiana saw its highest single-day death toll duplicated Tuesday and Wednesday, Gov. John Bel Edwards said he believed the state could be witnessing the beginning of the coronavirus curve flattening.
Statewide, more than 650 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported and nearly 2,000 people have been hospitalized since COVID-19 was first identified in New Orleans on March 9.
Of those hospitalized, about 525 were in need of ventilators. Edwards said Louisiana is no longer on track to run out of ventilators this week and is “clear for the next two weeks.”
According to figures released by the Louisiana Department of Health at noon on Wednesday, 746 new cases were reported overnight, bringing the statewide total to 17,030.
LDH reported 70 new deaths attributed to the coronaivrus, bringing that total to 652 across Louisiana.
The number of people in Louisiana hospitalized because of coronavirus actually dropped since noon Tuesday, from 1,996 to 1,983.
In Acadia Parish, four new cases were reported since Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 86.
To date, two deaths have been reported in the parish attributed to COVID-19
Tensas Parish remains the only one of Louisiana’s 64 parishes without a confirmed case of coronavirus.
Initial estimates put the virus’ national death toll from between 100,000 and 240,000 people in late March. However, using an updated model produced by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, that range has been lowered to between 50,000 and 140,00 deaths.
At noon Wednesday, there were 401,166 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States with 12,936 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University and Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
There were 22,563 reported cases of patients recovering from the virus.
For Louisiana, the new projection halves the virus’ estimated toll from last week, dropping the state’s overall expected deaths related to the virus from 1,834 to 746.
Daily deaths from the virus in Louisiana were previously expected to peak this week, with scientists estimating a high of 76 deaths on Friday. But updated projections suggest Louisiana may have already seen that peak.
Researchers noted Sunday the national peak in daily deaths is still expected to be around April 16, though the rate of deaths per day at that peak increased from an anticipated 2,644 deaths up to 3,130 per day.
Currently, the model predicts Louisiana to slow to 16 COVID-19 deaths per day by Monday, April 13, and down to no expected new deaths by April 25.
Researchers estimate now that Louisiana could see a range of deaths through August with a low of 639 and a high of 880. The 746 deaths estimated overall represents the middle of the range.