As we return to somewhat of a pre-COVID lifestyle Governor John Bel Edwards said there’s been a slight bump in daily case counts. On Friday the state reported 730 new cases. Edwards said the positivity rate is also increasing.
“We have a percent-positivity that is approaching 10%, just about six weeks ago was .07%,” said Edwards.
Edwards acknowledges that daily case counts can be somewhat misleading because of the availability of home tests that aren’t included in those counts. He said most likely case counts are higher. However, the good news is the number of hospitalization have not increased significantly.
“We are monitoring hospitalizations very closely, they are flat. We’re also monitoring to try to figure out whether people in the hospital have a more serious case disease on average than they have in the last several weeks,” said Edwards.
Edwards said they are also keeping a watchful eye on cases as festival season and large gatherings return. And as in previous surges, it’s expected that case counts will increase along with the high temperatures.
“We knew that that would happen in the south in the summer, it’s going to happen in the winter in the north, because when it’s 95 degrees and 95% humidity we go inside. That’s when these things happen,” said Edwards.
Edwards said while the vast majority of residents have either had COVID or have been vaccinated those protections do wane over time and to stay up to date on your booster shots.
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