With 16% of its workers in self-isolation due to exposure to the coronavirus, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services will run ambulances to situations that are not life-threatening staffed solely with emergency medical technicians and not the more highly trained paramedics who are now required to be on board.
The city will also receive an "ambulance surge" from the state to assist with medical services while it grapples with the COVID-19 epidemic, and officials are calling for volunteers to help with staffing, EMS said.
At least 94 of the city's 170 EMS workers have been exposed to the virus, authorities said. But because federal Centers for Disease Control guidelines allow medical professionals to keep working until they show symptoms, as long as they wear masks and are monitored for fever and other symptoms, only 28 have been put in isolation at home.