Louisiana’s COVID positivity rate dropped again this week, falling from 3.7% to 3.1% in the last seven days. Those numbers are encouraging to Louisiana State Health Director Dr. Joe Kanter, as are the hospitalization statistics.
“I’ll remind folks that we were over 3,000 [hospitalizations] at the peak of this Delta surge, which was in the middle of August,” Kanter said during an appearance on WWL Radio’s Newell Normand Show. “Total hospitalized patients is now down under 500… The progress continues.”
Kanter said he’d like to see one or two more weeks of continued decline to feel more comfortable with the status of the COVID outbreak in Louisiana. He also said the virus continues to overwhelmingly affect the unvaccinated population, with 84% of this week’s new COVID patients having not received a COVID vaccine.
He also pointed out the correlation of breakthrough cases with the state’s older population, particularly when it comes to breakthrough cases that end with a fatality. Only 20% of all COVID-related deaths were vaccinated individuals.
“Of those 20% who did have a breakthrough infection that resulted in a fatality, their median age was 77,” Kanter said.
He also surmised that the Delta variant was to blame in Louisiana for the state’s breakthrough cases totaling higher than the national norm, which sits around just 5%.
“It doesn’t seem like you experience this degree of increase in breakthrough infections until you get into a very large surge with an aggressive variant like Delta,” Kanter said. “And not every state is going to do that.”
Kanter also said the Delta surge in Louisiana was likely worse because of the large numbers of the state’s population that remained unvaccinated when it began infecting residents.
