Louisiana’s progress in lowering the spread of COVID has stalled out and begun to slowly tick back up, largely due to increased community spread in the Lake Charles region.
State Health Officer Dr. Joseph Kanter said Region Five has nearly doubled its percent positivity rate, which is now over ten percent and has seen average new daily cases increase for five straight weeks.
“If we are not careful over the next few weeks and we are not as aggressive as possible with vaccinations the increases in Lake Charles are at risk of spreading throughout the state,” said Kanter.
Kanter said he’s worried the increase is being driven by the prevalence of the more infectious and deadly UK variant. Of the state’s 164 confirmed cases 96 have been found in Region Five.
Region Five has the lowest vaccination rate in the state at only nine percent.
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