Will Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards extend the statewide mask mandate today, or let it expire Wednesday? We’ll find out at his 1 PM news conference.
Dr. Fred Lopez with LSU Health New Orleans told WWL’s Tommy Tucker there’s reason to be optimistic about the state’s pandemic progress. Data shows the Delta surge has peaked.
“The number of cases being reported is continuing to decrease and the number of people in hospitals has continued to decrease,” said Lopez.
Yesterday the state reported fewer than 1,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients for the first time since July. According to the Louisiana Department of Health COVID dashboard the state peaked at 3,022 COVID hospitalizations on August 17th.
Despite the progress Lopez warned there’s still a major roadblock impeding our pandemic getaway.
“We still have a significant percentage of people in Louisiana who are not vaccinated and still the Delta strain is the predominant strain,” said Lopez who added only 51 percent of Louisianans have received at least one shot.
