SWLA COVID cases updated July 6SWLA COVID cases updated July 6

Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter released a public service video Monday that featured himself, Dr. Tim Haman, Christus Ochsner Health Southwest Louisiana chief medical officer, and Dr. Manley Jordan, Lake Charles Memorial Health System. The video, uploaded to the Lake Charles City Hall’s Facebook page, provides up to date information regarding coronavirus from “sources that were heavily vetted,” Hunter said.

Haman and Jordan are locally based health care professional with “local roots” and families living in the same communities that they provide care to, Hunter said.

“God help us if we’ve come to a point in our society where in the middle of a pandemic and we want to know medical or scientific information we are trusting a meme on Facebook or what my brother-in-law overheard at the supermarket more than guys like Dr. Tim Haman and Dr. Mac Jordan,” he said.

Christus Ochsner and Memorial hospitals are both experiencing record hospitalizations due to coronavirus. “We’ve got more patients at our facility and in the region as a whole then we did back in April when all this happened,” Haman said.

At its peak in April the region saw 46 patients hospitalized with the virus. “As of today, we have 91,” Haman said.

The rising numbers cause Jordan “great concern” as post-Memorial Day positive tests have risen from less than 2 percent positive to now 25 percent positive. The high positivity rate ranks Lake Charles on some lists as leading the nation in positivity per capita, Jordan said.

“If you’re not disturbed now, I’m not sure you ever will be.”

Compared with the flu, Haman said coronavirus is “absolutely more concerning.” While flu season can require hospitalizations, ventilators and even lead to death, “What we’re seeing now goes far beyond anything we see in a typical flu season.”

Haman said he was unsure if he’s ever seen 21 patients in the hospital with the flu making 91 coronavirus patients “above and beyond what we would typically see.”

The disease is also “much more infectious” than the flu, Jordan said. The flu’s reproductive number is 1.3 to 1.5 while COVID-19 is nearly double that at 2.5 to 3.

The newest wave of the virus facing Southwest Louisiana is hitting demographics differently as well. While nursing homes and the elderly were initially impacted the most, patients in their 20s to 40s have been coming down with very severe illnesses, Haman said.

“The wave that we’re seeing now is skewing a lot younger in terms of both case volume and hospitalization,” he said.

Regardless of the evolving nature of scientific knowledge concerning the virus, both doctors agreed that masking is an effective measure to curtail the disease. “Masking wasn’t part of the (original) narrative by the CDC but it’s part of our learning curve,” Jordan said.

Incorporated with physical distancing and good hygiene practice, masking is a proven coronavirus defense method that poses no health risk to wearers. “We as a community really need to look at what we’re willing to do to protect each other. It’s important to say wearing a mask is not a significant burden to anyone,” Haman said.

“We wear them 10 to 12 hours at a time here (at the hospital) and so I don’t think it’s asking too much of someone to wear a mask for 20 minutes while you’re in a grocery store.”