Dr. Tina Stefanski, LDH Region 4 Medical Director
The Louisiana Department of Health reported its single highest day number of COVID-19 cases Wednesday with 4,339 new cases. Acadiana Region Medical Director Dr. Tina Stefanski said cases were already on an uptick and now we are beginning to see spikes from Thanksgiving, two weeks ago today.
“And then when you throw Thanksgiving, on top of a really rapidly increasing case count, it’s really an opportunity for these cases to shoot up and us to see this kind of an increase trajectory in the number of cases reported,” said Stefanski.
In addition to the highest daily number of new cases and we are just below the second wave peak of 1,600 hospitalizations at 1,537. Stefanski said we haven’t seen the full effect of Thanksgiving on our healthcare system.
“For individuals to get to the point where their illness is more severe or severe enough to where they might need hospitalization, that typically doesn’t happen until someone is in a week or two of their illness,” said Stefanski.
The availability of COVID vaccines for the public is still six months away, Stefanski said until then we must remain diligent.
“The only way for us to curb this increase in transmission or get back to flattening that curve, or even bending the curve at this point is to change behavior,” said Stefanski.
Comments