No Phase One for now
Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday he has “no intention” of ordering Louisiana to return to more restrictive Phase One guidelines even as the state fights its way through the worst surge yet of COVID-19.
“We’re not looking at having any additional restrictions placed on businesses,” Edwards said during a virtual town hall meeting with The (Baton Rouge) Advocate and The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune and sponsored by AARP Louisiana.
The governor also said he won’t consider requiring state employees to get COVID vaccinations at least until the federal Food and Drug Administration grants final approval to existing vaccines. That approval could come as soon as September for the Pfizer vaccine, the FDA said this week.
Louisiana’s COVID hospitalizations set a record for a second consecutive Wednesday with 2,247 people in hospitals statewide. That’s almost nine times the number of people who were hospitalized with COVID on July 1, Louisiana Department of Health records show.
Statewide, new confirmed COVID cases jumped by 4,478 from Tuesday to Wednesday. Lincoln Parish added 24 new cases from Tuesday to Wednesday. That’s the biggest daily increase so far this month and the largest one since late July.
Local healthcare providers continue to report an uptick in COVID patients, with most of them younger, unvaccinated and suffering from the more contagious Delta variant.
That mirrors the statewide trend and is the reason Edwards reimposed the statewide indoor mask mandate that’s in effect until Sept. 1.
During the town hall meeting, Edwards said Louisiana’s seven-day case rate continues to lead the country. All 64 of the state’s parishes are now considered high transmission areas, according to LDH.
Edwards said the state’s COVID positivity is now 15.4%, up from 13% on Monday. He said the rising numbers indicate Louisiana has not reached the peak for the current fourth surge — the one state health officials say is the worst of the so far 17-month-long pandemic.
The positivity rate in Lincoln Parish sits at 15%, up 4% from the previous reporting period.
Among the questions Edwards fielded during the 30-minute town hall meeting was one asking why not just let COVID run its course.
“There is no running its course,” the governor said. “We have people who are positive for the third time. How many people would die, COVID patients and non-COVID patients alike?”
Edwards continued to push vaccinations. Though Louisiana has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation — 37% — Edwards said the state had seen a 300% increase in the number of people getting vaccinated daily.
But still “we are nowhere near where we ought to be,” Edwards said.
The governor said he doesn’t understand people who have turned COVID into a partisan issue.
“That virus doesn’t give a damn whether someone is a Democrat or a Republican or an Independent,” Edwards, a Democrat, said.
He also said he doesn’t understand “how people are so dismissive of science. It is confounding. It is sad. The fact of the matter is, it’s dangerous.”
