Louisiana National Guard Soldiers and Airmen operate a COVID-19 testing and vaccination site at the Mahalia Jackson Center in New Orleans, Jan 5.
The Louisiana National Guard is continuing to support Covid missions around the state in 2022, at the direction of Governor John Bel Edwards. Cindy Haygood is the Task Force Covid commander with LANG.
She says the Omicron surge has led to a huge increase in test site demand throughout the state.
“We started adding testing sites working through New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to make sure we are meeting the demand of all the citizens out there.”
886 service members are currently supporting various Covid missions in Louisiana including providing food bank and warehouse support.
Haygood says they are working at 28 vaccine sites and administering Covid tests at 31 sites.,
“They are also carrying all of the test kits as the state receives them to get them out to all of the nine Louisiana Department of Health regions.”
Haygood says guardsmen have administered more than 542,000 Covid tests, 206,300 vaccines since the start of the pandemic — and distributed over 42 million pounds of food.
She says between the pandemic and hurricanes, many of these soldiers have been activated full-time for nearly 22 months.
“It’s full time right now and the pandemic has a huge vote in how long we’ll be under these orders, but we’re always happy to serve our citizens because we are also a part of this community.”
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