COVID-19 deaths surpass 2,000 in Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS — The number of Louisiana deaths attributed to the disease caused by the new coronavirus surpassed 2,000 in figures released Tuesday by the state health department, and the number of confirmed cases neared 30,000.

More than 20,300 of those infected are now presumed recovered, according to the figures. The number of those hospitalized with the disease remained above 1,500. The number requiring ventilators stood at 194, down from 220 a day earlier.

The number of deaths — 2,042 — was up from 1,991 a day earlier.

The numbers were released as the state also reached another milestone in the effort to ease the economic pain caused by the coronavirus fight: Louisiana’s labor department said it had passed the $1 billion mark in relief payments.

The Louisiana Workforce Commission said that, since March 22, more than 400,000 state residents had directly received payments totaling more than $1 billion as of Monday.

The commission news release noted that, for all of 2019, more than $151 million was paid to 103,000 claimants.

The payments since March 22 include more than $254 million in state unemployment claims and over $37 million in federal pandemic unemployment payments.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For others, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal. To prevent the spread of the virus, Gov. John Bel Edwards has extended a stayat-home order through May 15.

Officials say warmer weather has led to more violations of the order, which limits gatherings to no more than 10 people.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents have recently had to break up “numerous” groups of boaters for violating COVID-19 guidelines on beaches and sandbars, a news release said.

Enforcement Division spokesman Adam Einck did not have a number of such incidents or how many people were involved, he said in an email.

“Agents have noticed more people gathering in larger groups in the past couple of weeks with the weather heating up and being nice outside,” he wrote.