Apr 5, 2020 - Health
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that coronavirus modeling projects his state will run out of ventilators on April 9 and hospital beds on April 11.
Why it matters: Louisiana has around 12,500 infected people and 409 deaths. New York is the only state in the country with a worse per capita death rate.
- Two southeast Louisiana parishes, including one that encompasses New Orleans, have the most deaths per capita nationwide, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The big picture: Despite the wartime mobilization effort by U.S. manufacturers to produce medical supplies, it appears to be too little, too late.
- President Trump acknowledged at a press conference Saturday that there could be a shortage of ventilators — which are critical for treating coronavirus patients who are unable to breathe for themselves — but doubled down on his belief that states should have been better prepared for the pandemic.
- Most of the 100,000 ventilators Trump promised the U.S. would obtain won't be available until June, FEMA officials told Congress last week.