We are just coming off our third surge of the coronavirus pandemic, and health officials are warning us to get ready for a fourth. It's because of the so-called UK variant.
"There's a good likelihood that we will have an additional surge or spike before we are able to achieve herd immunity," said Dr. Joe Kanter with the Louisiana Department of Health.
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Dr. Kanter said regular testing doesn't tell them which variant of the coronavirus someone has, but with confirmed cases they do have, and another 20 pending, "without doubt, there are many many more variant cases in the state than we know about."
There are so many suspected cases, he said even the CDC is swamped.
"The CDC is now getting so many of these pending confirmation requests from states that they're not able to keep up with it."
And its timing, said Dr. Kanter, couldn't be worse.
"It's hitting us at just the time when we are recovering from this very big spike, the largest spike we've had in the pandemic, over Christmas and New Year's."
He said it is critical, even with Super Bowl weekend and Mardi Gras soon upon us, that we avoid socializing with people from outside our households.