There are now more patients with COVID in Louisiana hospitals than ever before, and they are increasingly younger.
The State today reported 128 more coronavirus hospitalizations across Louisiana, bringing the total to a new record of 2,112.
There were also 59 additional COVID deaths in just the past 24 hours in the state today and more than 4,700 more positive tests.
LDH says 85 to 90 percent of cases, hospitalizations and deaths are people not vaccinated.
"This surge is putting a dangerous strain on hospitals' ability to deliver care," Governor John Bel Edwards said in a post in Twitter. "Getting vaccinated & wearing masks are simple solutions to a very serious problem."
State Health Officer, Dr. Joe Kanter is pleading with everyone to take this Delta surge seriously and do everything they can to help mitigate the spread. He warns that with rooms and ICU units full in hospital after hospital without enough staff to care for more patients, there is no more time.
"In order to turn this around this week, which is what we absolutely have to do... if we don't, it is going to be catastrophic for the hospitals. We have to mitigate, and that's why the governor's masking order was unfortunately necessary and so important."
Kanter told WWL's Tommy Tucker that people should keep getting vaccinated too, but said that won't move the needle in the short term.
He says in states that have seen herd immunity rates of vaccines, the situation is not dire like it is in Louisiana.
Thousands of kids are now catching COVID, with growing numbers from new borns to teens hospitalized with the virus and dying. Children's Hospital in New Orleans reports the ICU has been full for weeks.
New Orleans Mayoral Spokesman Beau Tidwell drove the message home in a news conference today.
"If you are out there, and you're are unvaccinated, and you're not wearing a mask; you are putting children in danger. This is real. Our hospitals are filling up. We need people to take this seriously."
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Tidwell says children and adults with other medical issues are now having to wait for beds and treatment in emergency rooms because people who chose not to get vaccinated are clogging up the ERs and the hospitals.
He also thanked a growing number of businesses that are requiring proof of vaccinations in New Orleans for patrons to do business with them. In New York that is now going to be mandated. Tidwell said that is not off the table in New Orleans.