BEAUMONT, Texas — Key updates for Sunday, April 5:
- Texas DPS begins checkpoints at Louisiana border
- The U.S. death toll reached more than 8,000
- Louisiana's governor warns state could run out of ventilators by Thurs.
- Worldwide total cases passed 1 million, with more than 64,000 deaths.
- Pope Francis has begun the first of several Holy Week ceremonies without the public.
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April 5 3:41 p.m. – The Port Arthur Health Department says four new positive test results were returned on Sunday, April 5. Each of these patients are between the ages of 20 and 70.
April 5 2:50 p.m. – The Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission said Sunday afternoon the six-county region has a total of 121 cases.
Jefferson County-64, Hardin County-28, Orange County-23, Jasper County-3, Tyler County-2, Newton County-1
Liberty County reports 5 cases, and Chambers County reports 11 cases total. The total number of cases is 137 for all 8 counties.
April 5 1:38 p.m. – The death toll amid the novel coronavirus pandemic continues to skyrocket as more than 9,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19 as of Sunday afternoon, a day after the U.S. recorded its largest number of deaths in a 24-hour span, ABC News reports.
There are now more than 324,000 diagnosed cases in the U.S. and more than 1.2 million around the world. The actual number is believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations' outbreaks.
April 5 1:04 p.m. – Orange County Judge John Gothia says that county offices will be closed this week after a county employee tested positive for COVID-19.
Judge Gothia says that Public Health is doing an investigation of the buildings that the employee may have entered. Once these buildings are identified they will be professionally disinfected, a news release said. READ MORE HERE.
April 5 12:04 p.m. – The Louisiana Department of Health confirmed just over 13,000 cases of coronavirus in the state Sunday. At least 477 people have died from COVID-19.
The 68 new deaths are the most reported in a single day, as Gov. John Bel Edwards and other elected officials warn that hospitals could reach their capacity within the week.
April 5 9:38 a.m. – U.S. 'wasted' months before preparing for virus pandemic, Associated Press reports.
The first alarms sounded in early January that the outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China would ignite a global pandemic. But the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.
Purchasing contracts reviewed by The Associated Press show that federal agencies waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.
Now, the national stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of infected patients needing critical care is surging.
April 5 9:29 a.m. – Louisiana State Police issued a traffic advisory Sunday morning warning of potential traffic congestion when traveling west into Texas from Louisiana.
The advisory says that checkpoints and screening of vehicles leaving Louisiana may result in "traffic backups" in westbound lanes of travel.
April 5 9:29 a.m. – Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards gave the latest update on the state's ventilator capacity on CNN's State of the Union show, saying that the latest information from his administration's models shows Louisiana will run out of life-saving ventilators by April 9.
That grim deadline is a week back from April 2, the original date Louisiana was expected to run out.
Social distancing measures and a slow trickle of ventilators from the federal Strategic National Stockpile and private vendors have been pushing the date back one or two days at a time.
Edwards said ICU beds were expected to run out two days later, on April 11.
The governor also addressed Rev. Tony Spell, the pastor in Central, La. who has made national headlines for flouting the state's stay at home order by drawing large crowds to his services – sometimes hundreds, often bused in from other parishes.
"We can't enforce our way out of this," Edwards said, adding that he was appealing to Spell to do the right thing.
April 5 9:00 a.m. – Tom Dempsey, the iconic New Orleans Saints placekicker, died Saturday of complications from coronavirus, his family said. He was 73. Dempsey was one of the patients who contracted the virus at Lambeth House, a senior care facility in New Orleans that has seen a cluster of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
April 5 7:24 a.m. – The spokesman for Vladimir Putin says the Russian president will continue working remotely for at least another week amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Putin and people who work with him are being tested regularly.
April 5 6:17 a.m. – Pope Francis has begun the first of several Holy Week ceremonies that will be held without the public this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Normally, tens of thousands of Romans and pilgrims, clutching olive branches, would have flocked to an outdoor Mass led by the pontiff. Instead, Francis was leading the ceremony inside the shelter of St. Peter’s Basilica, which seemed even more cavernous than usual because it was so empty.
New Orleans convention center to open as converted health facility
State medical officials are preparing for Monday’s opening of the Morial Convention Center, which is being converted into a medical support facility to help local hospitals care for patients infected with the new coronavirus.
The plan is for the most critical patients to remain in hospitals and give those with less severe symptoms but in need of medical care a place to go.
Joe Kanter, assistant state health officer with the Louisiana Department of Health and among those on the tour of the convention center, told media the next three weeks are “incredibly critical.”
Part of the facility’s purpose is to also keep COVID-positive patients away from the general population.
Trump again touts drug treatment
President Donald Trump is again touting a drug used to treat certain other diseases and says he may take it himself in hope that it will help fend off the new coronavirus.
Trump says “there’s a rumor out there” that hydroxychloroquine is effective, declaring “I may take it.” He has often pointed to hydroxychloroquine as a possible cure and urged people to take it, despite more sober assessments of its effectiveness by medical professionals.
The drug has long been used to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Very small preliminary studies suggested it might help prevent coronavirus from entering cells and possibly help patients clear the virus sooner. But the drug has major potential side effects, especially for the heart, and large studies are underway to see if it is safe and effective for treating COVID-19.
President warns US facing 'toughest' weeks ahead
President Donald Trump is warning that the U.S. is facing the “toughest” weeks ahead as the rise in coronavirus cases accelerates. “There will be a lot of death,” he says.
But after the somber start to his daily briefing on Saturday, he has come back again and again to his desire to get the country open for business. He said, “We have to open our country again. We don’t want to be doing this for months and months and months. This country wasn’t meant for this.”
Trump, who met earlier Saturday with the heads of major sports leagues, said he wants to get the fans back in arenas as soon as possible. He also talked about wanting people to be able to go to restaurants again.
