News of the Omicron variant of COVID has health experts concerned as a number of countries have reported cases of the new variant, including Canada. Governor John Bel Edwards is also mindful of Omicron and said unfortunately it’s par for the course.
“And we know that these new variants will happen, these mutations occur as a matter of course during transmission, so the more transmission you’re going to have the more mutations, the more variants,” said Edwards.
Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are now experiencing a surge in the Delta variant, similar to the one Louisiana had over the summer. Edwards said it’s another reminder the pandemic is far from over and everyone needs to help slow transmission.
“That’s another reason why we need people to be vaccinated, it slows transmission and it also kind of lends credence to this idea, which is entirely correct, that this is a global pandemic,” said Edwards.
Currently, 48.7% of Louisiana’s population is fully vaccinated, that’s more than 2.26 million. 55.3% have received one dose of the COVID vaccine and 18.4% are boosted.
Edwards said we should all be concerned about the newest variant and continue to practice mitigation. He said he’s hoping and praying the state does not have another surge similar to the one in July and August.
“We’re still in a public health emergency, this pandemic is very real, but we have tools now to fight against it, unlike a year ago, we just have to use them,” said Edwards.
The Omicron variant is now the dominant COVID variant in South Africa, less than two weeks after it was first reported.