Governor John Bel Edwards gave some encouraging news that Louisiana is definitely on the downswing of the Omicron surge. Edwards said he plans to renew the Public Health Emergency proclamation, but it will not have any mention of face masks. And the department of health will give a briefing today on new CDC guidelines for K-12 schools.
“It’s about quarantine isolation, exposure those things that the CDC updated of in their guidance last week. And that guidance from LDH will not have any mask mandates either,” said Edwards.
Edwards said cases the last three Mondays have decreased significantly each week but there’s still plenty of COVID out there.
“When you’re coming off of a surge the last number to really respond is the death number because deaths are what’s known as a lagging indicator,” said Edwards.
On Monday the state reported 41 COVID deaths.
As for hospitalizations, they remain four times as high as they were before the Omicron surge started and Edwards said we still have a lot of improving to do pandemic wise, on Monday the state indicated 1,135 were in the hospital with COVID.
The governor reminded residents that they are still required to wear face masks in a healthcare setting.
“You also have to wear a mask if you’re on transit because of the Federal TSA order, so if you’re going to get on a plane or a bus, or a taxi or whatever, that’s controlled by the Federal government,” said Edwards.
Edwards said the state’s positivity rate had from the mid-’30s this time last month to now 8-percent.
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