With schools in New Orleans shifting to distance learning later this week, health officials are warning that the coronavirus situation is grim.
New Orleans health department director Dr. Jennifer Avegno says hospitalizations have skyrocketed.
"We are nowhere near out of the woods, in fact, we are probably at a worse place than we have been since April," said Dr. Avegno.
Cases went up two weeks after Halloween, then went up after Thanksgiving, and Dr. Avegno says they don't think people learned a lesson from that.
"We have grave concerns about what happened over the holidays," she said. "We are approaching the highest level of hospitalizations that we've seen, statewide. Anybody who was near a hospital in March or April knows how scary that was."
Avegno said people can't let the promise of available vaccines on the horizon lead them to abandoning the methods that have kept people safe for the last nine to ten months.
