NEW ORLEANS — The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations eased down slightly on Wednesday, for the first time in nearly two weeks.
According to new figures published by the Louisiana Department of Health, there were 3,013 patients hospitalized across the state on Wednesday. That is a net decline of nine patients from the previous day. The state health department says 91 percent of those patients are unvaccinated.
Louisiana has reported a drop in COVID-19 hospitalizations only three days since July 1.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state are slowing down after skyrocketing at an unprecedented rate in July. Louisiana has also seen a slight decline in the percentage of tests returning positive in recent weeks. However, it may still be too soon to determine if the state has reached the peak of the record-setting fourth surge of the virus, or if new cases and hospitalizations are just plateauing.
Regardless, the rush of COVID-19 patients has stressed the state's health care delivery system to a near breaking point. As of Wednesday, five of Louisiana's nine health regions - which include 32 parishes - had fewer than 10 ICU beds available. The latest region to drop below that threshold was Region 9 (Northshore) which reported just eight ICU beds available.
Louisiana also reported on Thursday 5,550 new cases and 58 new deaths due to the virus. In total, 11,851 people in Louisiana have died from the virus since the pandemic began.
Children represented about 28 percent of the newly reported cases, Christina Stephen, a spokesperson for Gov. John Bel Edwards' office said.
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