Masking order blocked by state judge in Louisiana city
SHREVEPORT, La. — A state judge on Friday blocked a northwest Louisiana city from enforcing a masking requirement recently issued by the mayor in hopes of fighting the spread of the new coronavirus.
The restraining order was issued by state District Judge Craig Marcotte in a lawsuit filed by five Shreveport businesses, The Shreveport Times reported.
The businesses' owners said in their lawsuit that they could lose customers because of Mayor Adrian Perkins’ order.
“Compounding the disruption caused by the Order itself, consumers have threatened to boycott businesses that comply with the Order in view of the potent political symbolism that is associated with masks. This could result in a loss of good will to these businesses with masks, and for other individual reasons,” the petition read.
A hearing on the issue is set for July 20.
Also Friday, Vice President Mike Pence's office announced that Pence will visit Baton Rouge next week. He is expected to meet with Gov. John Bel Edwards and health officials to discuss efforts to fight the spread of COVID19. He will also visit Tiger Stadium at LSU for a discussion with Edwards and higher education leaders on fall reopening plans and university sports programs.
As confirmed cases of COVID-19 increase in Louisiana, hospitals in the state’s southwest corner are concerned about the rising use of intensive care beds.
KPLC-TV reports that Lake Charles Memorial Hospital on Thursday had 19 patients in an ICU area established for
COVID-19 patients. There were nine such patients on July 1.
“In just nine days, that number has more than doubled,” Dr. Clifford Courville said. “So you can anticipate what things may look like in nine more days, when we don’t have any patients that we can fit in our COVID ICU.”
Courville said the increasing load could force the hospital to shut down another ICU area to make room for more coronavirus patients.
“We will have to then consider closing down another ICU to fit more COVID patients, which will then involve perhaps eliminating any other elective or emergency surgeries that are being done," Courville said.
Kevin Holland, CEO of CHRISTUS Ochsner St. Patrick in Lake Charles, said the facility has had record levels of COVID-19 patients in the past two to three weeks.
The five-parish state health department region that includes Lake Charles had 68 of 89 ICU beds in use as of Friday, according to department figures. The neighboring region that includes Lafayette and surrounding parishes had 150 ICU beds in use with 28 available, the department figures show.
Statewide, hospitalizations have been going up amid increasing numbers of infections reported as a result of continued testing.
On Friday, the statewide hospitalization rate climbed to 1,117, up from 1,042 on Thursday. The number of confirmed cases was more than 74,600, up from nearly 72,000 a day earlier. Twenty-five more deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to at least 3,272. The state says 46,334 people with COVID-19 are presumed recovered.