Beginning next week, the Louisiana Department of Health will cease to give daily COVID numbers and move to weekly updates. Currently, the state gives daily totals Monday through Friday and State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter said the change will go into effect on Wednesday, October 19th.
“We’re still tracking the data daily and the daily data is still going to be available, on the website, the website just only going to be updated with new fresh data every week,” said Kanter.
Kanter said we’re at a point in the pandemic where we can step back from daily totals and look at things more in-depth on a weekly basis and examine trends by racial demographics and other factors.
“At this point in the pandemic, we’re doing well. We’re coming down from the sixth surge, hospitalizations are at about the point where they were at the end of May, and with the treatments available we do feel like we’re in a new phase of the pandemic,” said Kanter.
When you compare numbers from the most recent surge, also known as the sixth surge, Kanter said we had every bit as much COVID transmission as prior surges but thankfully the clinical acuity was low.
“And I think we’re transitioning out of it, it’s tough to know exactly when you’re out of it, sometimes you might not even know until it’s already in the rearview mirror. But we’re clearly in a different phase of this,” said Kanter.
Kanter said at this point in the pandemic 95% of Louisianans have either been vaccinated, had COVID, or both.
to visit the LDH COVID dashboard click here.
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