“I don’t think we need to be alarmed,” Louisiana State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter told WWL’s Dave Cohen this week of the recent uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations both nationwide and in Louisiana.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 hospitalizations were up 12.5% at the end of July.
In Louisiana, hospitalizations also creeped up in July and early August. Figures from the Louisiana Department of Health indicate there were around 167 daily hospitalizations due to the virus from July 31 through Sunday.
“I think we need to take stock of the situation and do some personal risk comfort calculations here,” said Kanter. “So, we’ve had cases and hospitalizations going up now for the past few weeks. You know, it takes some time to really be confident that what you’re seeing is a trend. But at this point, we are confident we are in another surge of COVID 19. This is now our eighth surge in the state of Louisiana.”
That might sound serious, but Kanter explained that this surge is a bit different from earlier ones. That’s because most people in the state have been vaccinated, had COVID or both.
“I fully have the hope and expectation that this – now eighth – surge will be one where there’s probably a lot of transmission,” said Kanter.
“But on average, the clinical outcomes, how sick people get, are not that bad.
And we’re not going to be talking about overwhelming the hospitals.”
However, Kanter did note that there hasn’t yet been a week without fatalities since that start of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. He said that people who are especially vulnerable should be careful in exposed spaces.
Kanter and Cohen also discussed tips for staying safe as excessively hot temperatures continues to blanket Louisiana. Listen to their full conversation here.
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