At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Louisiana officials celebrated the state’s recent low overall COVID caseload but expressed real concern that the vaccination campaign is stalling out sooner than expected.
State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter said Louisiana’s percent positivity rate is down to 2.7 percent with six out of nine medical regions seeing week-to-week case decreases. He said that puts Louisiana at the ninth-lowest state in the nation when it comes to new day-to-day cases and percent positivity, and fifth lowest when it comes to COVID hospitalizations per capita.
And while just under a third of Louisianans have initiated their vaccine series and 27 percent have completed their series Governor Edwards said the rapid decline in demand is concerning.
“We have more hesitancy than we want and it is taking people longer to get vaccinated than we would like,” said Edwards. “We knew this day would come and we were hoping, quite frankly, that it would come after more people had availed themselves.”
Only 81 percent of all vaccines ordered by the state have been used so far. Edwards said at this point if you want a vaccine, you can get one possibly as soon as same day.
Kanter said they’re beginning to move resources away from mass vaccine events and into targeted community outreach like their new program that vaccinates homebound individuals in their homes.
“This is an important service because just because someone suffers from a disability or is homebound they should still be able to avail themselves of the vaccine,” said Kanter.
If you are homebound, or care for a homebound Louisianan call the vaccine hotline at 855-453-0774 and request an in-home vaccination visit.
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