COVID Hotspot
According to the Louisiana Department of Health, 90% of hospitalized COVID patients are not fully vaccinated. Also, 84% of recent COVID fatalaties were among those not fully vaccinated.
Louisiana is now “at the dead center” of the nation’s COVID-19 hotspots, and there’s no tangible end in sight.
That’s the message Gov. John Bel Edwards and several of the state’s top doctors brought to Louisianans on Friday as they continued their pleas for people to wear masks and get vaccinated.
“It we are going to avoid more drastic measures in this state the only way is if people mask,” Dr. Joe Kanter, Louisiana’s state health officer said during a press conference called to address the still-ravaging fourth surge of the potentially fatal respiratory virus.
“We have reached a critical point,” Edwards said.
He called on Louisianans so inclined to join him in lunchtime fasting and prayer for the state daily on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The state remains under an indoor mask mandate until Sept. 1.
All of the COVID markers — new cases, hospitalization, percent positivity and deaths — continue to climb daily statewide. On Friday, Louisiana set its fourth consecutive daily record for COVID-related hospitalizations, at 2,424. As of earlier in the week, at least 10 of these were in Lincoln Parish.
Officials continue to cite Louisiana’s low vaccination rate — about 37% — as part of the problem. According to the Louisiana Department of Health, 90% of hospitalized COVID patients are not fully vaccinated; 84% of recent COVID fatalities were among those not fully vaccinated.
Edwards said the situation statewide worsened over the week, with many hospitals overwhelmed by the influx of patients, many of whom are younger and sicker than during the early months of the pandemic.
Meantime, officials say they anticipate more breakthrough cases to occur in fully vaccinated individuals because of the more contagious Delta variant.
“This is a different pandemic than we dealt with a year ago,” Dr. John Vanchiere, a pediatrician with LSU Health in Shreveport. “In Northwest Louisiana we have pregnant women in the hospitals or vents or on lung bypass because they have COVID.”
Vanchiere said one baby was born with COVID transmitted from its mother.
“This is a different pandemic. It is not the time to threaten lawsuits. It is not a time to mince words,” he said. “We are a pro-life state. There is nothing more pro-life now than wearing a mask.”
