BATON ROUGE, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The Louisiana Department of Health will issued a revised order Monday allowing non-emergency medical and surgical procedures in hospital and clinic settings to resume April 27.
“This guidance is necessary during a public health emergency to preserve personal protective equipment, to properly utilize hospital staffing and to ensure adequate hospital bed capacity,” said a statement released Monday afternoon by Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office.
“Health care facilities play a critical role in responding to COVID-19 and helping people be their healthiest,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “We are quite some time away from returning to normal but this is a step in the right direction.”
In a briefing Monday afternoon, Gov. Edwards and State Health Officer Dr. Jimmy Guidry emphasized the need to reopen non-emergency medical procedures and surgeries in order to prevent people from waiting too long to see their doctor and risking failure to spot and treat medical conditions that could be just as life-threatening or worse than the coronavirus.
Medical facilities will have to meet several criteria before procedures can begin, such as presenting a plan stating how social distancing will be kept, keeping a five-day supply of personal protection equipment. and stating how facilities will be cleaned to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The procedures that will be allowed will be decided by doctors based on the following conditions:
- in order to treat an emergency medical condition;
- to avoid further harms from an underlying condition or disease;
- and for time-sensitive conditions.
Additionally, the order states dental visits, procedures and surgeries shall only be performed under the following conditions:
- in order to treat an emergency medical condition;
- to avoid further harms from an underlying condition or disease;
- and for time-sensitive dental conditions.
More controversially, abortions would still be allowed as long as the mother’s health is in doubt. Such procedures could be considered time-sensitive.
Before facilities perform any procedure, each much have a plan in place to monitor for COVID-19 symptoms or test if possible; to ensure adequate physical distance between patients; must have a five-day minimum supply of PPE available; and must follow additional guidance outlined in the order.
The previous order allowed surgeries only for emergency medical conditions.
This order does not mean that all containment measures can be lifted across all facilities and specialties.
The LDH says healthcare services other than medical and surgical procedures should continue to happen via telehealth when medically appropriate.
Click here to read the order from the Louisiana Department of Health.
Monday’s briefing comes the number of cases rise to over 24,000 and deaths top 1,300. There were 595 new cases reported statewide, bringing the total to 24,523. While the increase has remained below three percent since April 12, Edwards noted was the highest increase in cases reported in more than a week.
“So we have to continue to watch that number, especially as we try to figure out where we are in meeting the threshold requirements to move into phase one,” Edwards said.
Analysis: La. governor warns reopening doesn’t mean normal
Monday’s updated death toll reflects 32 new deaths.
“Obviously, these are our brothers and sisters, as we’ve talked about before and we grieve every single one of them. And like the families of those lost in the BP oil spill and explosion, I encourage you to lift all these people up in prayer. But that number of deaths is actually down. Again, we won’t make too much of it because it’s just one day and because it comes on a Monday after a Sunday. But we’re watching that number very carefully, as well.”
Edwards said Monday’s report of 1,795 hospitalizations is a very slight increase, with 332 of those on ventilators.
“So we’re going to continue to watch all these numbers, but it is clear to say that over the last seven days, we’ve seen a decrease in the number of people in the hospital. Which, again, lets us know that we are trending in the right direction.”
Edwards said he was on a video teleconference Monday morning with Vice President Mike Pence and other governors in which the focus was “almost exclusively on testing and the important role that testing is going to play going forward, both diagnostic testing and the antibody testing, so that’s what you’re going to be hearing from me over the coming days and weeks.”
Edwards said contact tracing is going to necessary to identify people who have come in contact with those who test positive for COVID-19 up to 48 hours before they showed symptoms and get those people into isolation, as well.
“That’s they key to reopening the economy without seeing cases surge, that’s why it’s so critically important.”
The governor referenced the three-phase plan rolled out last week by the White House coronavirus task force that would allow areas with declining infections and strong testing to begin gradual reopening of businesses and schools — each phase lasting at least 14 days — to ensure that infections don’t accelerate again. The criteria for those phases begin with a downward trajectory in reports of flu-like illnesses.
“We haven’t met that threshold yet but we’re also not at the end of the current stay at home order. And so I’m hopeful that we will continue moving in the direction that we’ve been moving, and we will meet the threshold.”
