State Leaders say Convention Center is serving it’s purpose

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - There’s still a steady stream of recovering COVID-19 patients being transferred to the Convention Center.

But there certainly isn't the amount of patients that city and state leaders anticipated.

Dr. Joseph Kanter of the Louisiana Department of Health says that’s a good thing. Right now, he says around 70 COVID-19 patients are recovering at the Convention Center. There’s one thousand beds available if needed. Trailers across from the Convention Center are also being used. Those are for people with COVID-19 symptoms who are waiting for their test results but need some medical attention. All of that, relieves the pressure on hospitals in the New Orleans area. Dr. Kanter says hospitals are certainly busy and continuing to see COVID-19 patients coming in.

“The hospitals are very full but not exceeding their capacity and that’s welcoming news for all of us. I’ll tell you the ICU doctors in the New Orleans area have been tremendous at getting ICU patients off of ventilators early and in some cases...even preventing patients from using a ventilator in the first place... really doing nation leading work right now."

Dr. Kanter says the situation with PPE or personal protective equipment is still something that hospitals and medical professionals need but shipments are coming in every day. He says there are hundreds of ventilators right now available so that’s not a real problem at the moment. He points out while we’re seeing what appears to be a bend in the curve, now is not the time to stop taking precautions.

Copyright 2020 WVUE. All rights reserved.