Normalcy appears to be out of the country’s grasp with the recent uptick in Covid-19 cases fueled by the Delta variant, a highly contagious strain of Covid-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Delta variant caused 80 to 87 percent of all US Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks of July. This has impacted states with low vaccination numbers the most.
Louisiana, where just 37.3 percent of residents are fully vaccinated, is the fifth-least vaccinated state but is currently leading the country in an eruption of new cases after infection rates began to climb in early July.
Daily records continue to go up and the state reported over 6,000 new cases on Friday. According to a recent update from Baton Rouge General Hospital obtained by WAFB’s Steve Caparotta, 47 percent of the patients infected with Covid-19 in the hospital’s care are in the ICU and only 15 of these patients had been vaccinated. The hospital stated that workers this weekend are “in the middle of their toughest fight against this virus.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Monday reinstated the indoor masking mandate in response to the worsening crisis. “It has become extremely clear that our current recommendations on their own are not strong enough to deal with Louisiana’s fourth surge of Covid,” Edwards told reporters after announcing the mandate.
During a Friday press conference, Edwards made a grim assessment: “Things are if anything, worse today than they were on Monday. Unfortunately, the eyes of the nation are on Louisiana right now.”
Though less than a week old, the mask mandate has already faced backlash, notably at a school board meeting in St. Tammany parish on Thursday. One parent falsely claimed their child would be hindered
