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Department of Health shares regional data informing decision to extend Stay at Home order

BATON ROUGE — Governor John Bel Edwards extended Louisiana’s Stay at Home order until May 15 to continue to slow the spread of COVID-19. Louisiana does not currently meet the White House criteria for entering Phase 1 of reopening.
While Louisiana has seen positive, improving trends statewide in terms of new case growth and new hospitalizations, in several regions across the state, new cases and hospitalizations continue to increase or to remain at an elevated plateau. The White House criteria calls for declining COVID-19-like illnesses, declining case numbers and declining hospitalizations.
Now, the Department of Health is sharing data for each region of the state.

COVID-19-Like Illness (CLI)

CLI is calculated as a percentage of emergency room visits and is reported to the Department by facilities. As of this past weekend when this data was last updated, CLI was decreasing in all the regions.

Cases

Cases are reviewed using epidemic curves provided by the Centers for Disease Control. These specific CDC epi curves calculate the 3-day moving average of daily changes in incidence of infection per 100,000 people; each column represents the day-to-day difference in the 3-day average and is then color-coded based on the slope and low or high incidence. These curves include cases through April 24.
The data shows four areas where we see cases increasing or plateauing: Regions 2 (Baton Rouge area), 4 (Acadiana) and 8 (Monroe) are increasing; Region 9 is plateauing.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalizations are measured using hospitalizations per capita reported to the Department of Health. Hospitalization charts reflect data through April 30, and we are seeing progress.
Our data shows areas that we must continue to monitor: hospitalizations in Regions 2 (Baton Rouge) and 8 (Monroe) are increasing. Hospitalizations are plateauing in Region 6 (Central).

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