With a recent surge of COVID-19 cases in Louisiana, some people in the state are concerned that lockdown orders and masking mandates are in the offing.
However, Louisiana State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter told WWL’s Newell Normand this week that they shouldn’t be worried about that.
“There’s no serious talk of that in Louisiana,” he said of potential lockdowns or mandates. “And I doubt a lot of states really would go down that path. But really the rationale and the justification… was the preservation of hospitals. And we’re so far from that line now.”
There has been a sharp increase in cases in Louisiana since August, with more than 9,000 new cases reported from Aug. 28 to Sept. 3. There has also been an increase in hospitalizations but, as Kanter said, not so much that hospitals are getting overwhelmed.
“That said, there’s just no question we are in a COVID surge right now,” he said.
Nationwide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also reported an uptick in COVID-19 cases. During the end of August, there was a 15.7% increase in hospitalizations and a 10.5% increase in deaths.
In Louisiana, the current surge marks the eighth COVID-19 surge since the start of the pandemic. While health officials expect high transmission, they are not expecting severe illness.
“We’ve got about 250 hospitalized patients who were COVID positive in hospital beds right now in the state. And, you know, six or seven weeks ago, we were at around 50,” compared to 3,000 during the pandemic peak, Kanter explained. Even so, he noted that there still has not been a week free of COVID fatalities.
Both Kanter and the CDC recommend that people in vulnerable populations, such as senior citizens, take extra precautions not to become infected, as they are at higher risk for hospitalization and death. These precautions can include getting vaccinated and wearing a mask in crowded spaces.
Additionally, Kanter said experts are not particularly concerned about the BA. 2. 86 variant, which the White House announced First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for this month. She has since tested negative, according to CNN.
Kanter explained that the variant is getting attention because it has “30 or 35 mutations, which is as different from the current strands as omicron was from the initial Wuhan strain,” but it has not taken off in dominance. In fact, he said it didn’t “even rank” as of his discussion with Normand this week.
Listen to the full discussion here to learn more about the COVID-19 surge, the fentanyl crisis, and the current cancer screening rates.