Rationing health care could be Louisiana's next step

The Front Page: Hospitals on life support, the vaccination police and a precipitous weather trend

By Drew Broach | Deputy metro editor

ON LIFE SUPPORT: Grappling with an unprecedented flood of COVID-19 patients, Louisiana’s hospitals are struggling to provide the public with the most basic levels of care — and are quickly approaching catastrophe. If the latest and worst COVID surge doesn’t abate within the next few weeks, Louisiana’s hospitals could reach a point where care is rationed and patients are triaged, meaning that those with the lowest likelihood of survival would be turned away and sent to hospice care.

For the 11th consecutive day Friday, the state Health Department reported a record high number of COVID hospitalizations.

VACCINATION POLICE: New Orleans' new requirement that proof of a coronavirus vaccine or a negative COVID test be presented to enter many businesses upended restaurants across the city. Reservations were cancelled, and restaurateurs frantically shuffled work schedules and fretted over being made to play the role of vaccination police.

Although New Orleans owns Louis Armstrong International Airport, the vaccine mandate doesn't apply there. That's because it's in Kenner, and the Federal Aviation Administration generally controls U.S. airport operations.

And this was bound to happen: Over the past two weeks, three batches of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards bound for New Orleans were seized in Memphis.

PRECIPITOUS: It's only mid-August, but New Orleans has already exceeded its average annual rainfall. Wet enough for you? There’s more rain predicted in the next few weeks as the Atlantic Basin hurricane season approaches its historical peak on Sept. 10.

You'll find all these stories and more in the Front Page and on NOLA.com. Welcome to the weekend.

D.B.