Governor Edwards extends the state’s public health emergency order requiring face masks to be worn inside state agencies due to the increase in Omicron cases. State Epidemiologist Theresa Sokol said the CDC recommends indoor masking for everyone regardless of vaccination status in areas with high or substantial community transmission.
“At least 75% of our parishes, and really what I’m getting at is pretty much our entire state is at one of these two highest levels of transmission,” said Sokol.
State Health Officials say the significant uptick in COVID hospitalizations and cases are indicative of the beginning of a fifth surge. Sokol said and going into the holidays there are fears it will only make things worse and we need to return to masking.
“Where we need to be right now is that everyone, you’re fully-vaccinated, partially vaccinated, boosted or completely unvaccinated we need to be masking in indoor public settings,” said Sokol.
Sokol said if you are attending a private indoor gathering with people outside of your immediate household you should mask to mitigate transmission, especially for those who are more susceptible to the virus.
“Then it’s a good idea to go ahead and mask in indoor private settings to protect those individuals as well,” said Sokol.
On Tuesday the state reported 1,729 new COVID cases and 265 hospitalization and three fatalities. Over the last few days, the state has gone from 207 to the current 265 hospitalizations averaging a daily increase of 19 patients.
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