State health officials say the COVID Delta variant is now the dominant strain to watch driving up COVID hospitalizations.
State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter says the state’s case numbers and hospitalizations are trending upwards due to this new strain.
“That is more than likely due to the Delta strain both nationally at 52% of all new cases and in our region of the country at 59% of new cases,” said Kanter.
Although the delta variant is more transmittable, Dr. Kanter says thankfully the current COVID vaccines are just as effective at protecting against this new strain.
However, Dr. Kanter stopped short of saying Louisiana is a Delta variant hot spot.
“I don’t think we are a hot spot, it is clear our numbers are going up,” said Kanter. “As they are going up we have a lot of Delta, we have a low vaccination rate, and we have weather working against us.”
Today, the state health department reported hospitalizations are up again to 351 COVID patients with 789 new cases since yesterday and six more deaths.