The newest strain of COVID, XBB.1.5 is rapidly growing in the US, health experts say nationally the variant accounts for 30% of cases. State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter said currently it only accounts for about 18% of cases in Louisiana.
“It is growing quite quickly, those numbers have doubled in only a couple of weeks, and it’s likely going to become the dominate variant here within the next two or three weeks I would imagine,” said Kanter.
Kanter said the World Health Organization believes this to be the most transmissible variant yet, which he said is to be expected. He also said holiday gatherings are responsible for the uptick in cases.
“Thankfully this doesn’t appear to be making people anymore sick, not more likely to put people in the hospital, and protection is available to us,” said Kanter.
Protections in the form of previous COVID infection antibodies, vaccines, boosters, and oral therapeutics.
The XBB.1.5 variant is expected to become the most dominant version in the next few weeks. Kanter said fortunately it’s not increasing hospitalizations at this point, but he does expect to see an increase in cases the closer we get to Mardi Gras.
“I do think we’ll see more transmission during the Mardi Gras holidays. I don’t expect it to get to the point of threatening our hospitals or anything like we have dealt with earlier,” said Kanter.
caoKanter said about 95% of those in Louisiana have either been vaccinated, had COVID, or both.
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