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Covid-weary Louisiana EMS workers brace for Hurricane Ida's wrath

Baton Rouge medical services are at a breaking point as they are scrambling to make ends meet

At the moment, the US is not only battling with a dangerous calamity but also an alarmingly rise in Covid-19 cases. With Hurricane Ida targetting Louisiana at the very time that it leads the nation in new Covid cases — which reportedly stands at a shocking 4,000-5,000 each day — is putting an immense amount of pressure on the emergency medical services and personnel. As per the latest reports, Baton Rouge medical services are at a breaking point as they have to practically scramble to make ends meet. 

Going by the latest reports, new Covid-19 infections in the US appear to be increasing at a slower rate than in previous weeks. But some states are not only battling the coronavirus but also the hurricane. More specifically Louisiana.

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According to AccuWeather, "All 30 ambulances in Baton Rouge have been working around the clock due to surging COVID cases, and now, crews are preparing to contend with a major hurricane as well."

The report says that EMS officials did not expect such an increase in Covid-related calls in the month of August. What's worse is that nobody was expecting a hurricane to deepen the crisis. It isn't just civilians bracing for Hurricane Ida but also EMS workers who have to pause and take shelter in the case of heavy winds. Plus the fact that Ida has forced people to evacuate, adding to traffic woes. 

Like most of the country, Louisiana has reportedly been reeling under the Delta variant surge. Some health experts reportedly think that the Delta variant may have peaked in the country, as it did in India and the United Kingdom. Louisiana recently recorded a 7-day average of about 4,700 new daily cases, down 10% from the previous week and 20% from the peak of 5,800 new daily cases 10 days ago, CNBC said.

“We can’t ignore that there’s some daylight in the cases, can’t ignore that there’s been at least several days now of decreased reports of Covid cases, and that’s really good. I don’t know if we’d say we know whether or not we’ve peaked, but we sure are grateful for the small downtick in cases,” Alyson Neel, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Health, reportedly said.

On Wednesday, reports revealed that the average daily death count was more than 1,100, with many of those deaths occurred in Florida, Texas, and Georgia which is up 39% from a week ago. Louisiana reported 139 COVID deaths on August 24, 2021. This is the state’s highest single-day total since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins data.

Just a week ago, it was reported that the state was seeing an 'astronomical' number of new Covid-19 cases. According to Gov. John Bel Edwards, infections were increasing particularly among younger populations. "I can tell you that for the last couple of days, 28% of all the new cases that we're reporting are in children zero to 17," he had reportedly said.