Louisiana has now seen three straight days of COVID-19 hospitalization increases, the metric used by health officials to track the actual rate of community spread.
Assistant Health Secretary Dr. Alex Billioux says their contact tracing data shows this is largely due to increased social interactions in recent weeks, and possibly because of Memorial Day.
“Moving around in the community whether they are going to a Phase Two opened facility or not, just being out and about more, is going to increase the risk that you are going to come into contact with someone with COVID and increase the risk that COVID spreads,” says Billioux.
Billioux says it does not appear this recent increase in transmissions is disproportionately due to new clusters in nursing homes.
Neighboring Texas and Arkansas have seen record-breaking increases in the last week. Billioux says that could be foreshadowing.
“A lot of what they have done has preceded us by two weeks so I think as we are looking towards the future we are looking next door to see what the present looks like for them,” says Billioux.
The growth in cases has been largest in the Lake Charles, Alexandria, and Monroe regions.
Billioux says the recent upward trend here, and the record spikes in neighboring states are important reminders that the pandemic is not over and we need to continue wearing masks and social distancing.
“If we don’t take those personal actions then there is no reason to think that we will be any different from our neighboring states in a week or two,” says Billioux.
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