Louisiana has a new tool in the fight against COVID-19: an app that lets you know if you’ve had close contact with a COVID-positive individual. Matt Doyle has the story.
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The state has no plans to expand eligibility for those who can get a COVID-19 vaccine, because they are not anticipating an increase in allotments. Jeff Palermo has more…
Cut 2 (30) “…I’m Jeff Palermo”
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The field of candidates for the 2nd and 5th Congressional district special elections is now set. Matt Doyle has the story.
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The state has released a COVID contact tracing app that lets you know if you’ve been in contact with someone who has tested positive.
State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter says the app is designed to sense nearby phones, and with that data let you know if you’ve been near a positive case.
The app requires you to opt in to voluntarily allowing the service to utilize your Bluetooth.
Kanter says the state isn’t saving this information, and your phone will not tell you who the infected person you had contact with was.
The service works by recording anonymous tokens from nearby phones and alerting you later if any of those tokens gets reported as COVID positive.
Kanter says similar services are already working quite well in other states.
COVID Defense is available on the Apple and Android app stores.
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Louisiana has been told by the federal government to expect a flat amount of weekly vaccine allocations for the next four to five weeks, which means about 58-thousand doses a week. Governor Edwards says state leaders were previously told that once vaccines became available there would be a steady increase…
State health officer Doctor Joe Kanter expects a big increase in vaccine supply once Johnson and Johnson and Astrazeneca vaccines are authorized by the F-D-A and become available. Edwards says there’s currently not enough vaccine available, so there are no plans to expand the eligibility or hold mass vaccination events…
Each state receives a percentage of doses based on its population that have been made available to the United States. Edwards says as far as he can tell, Louisiana is receiving its proper share…
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The Louisiana Department of Insurance has received 691 formal complaints about home insurance companies related to issues stemming from Hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Zeta.
Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says the majority of those complaints are related to companies’ failure to communicate with policyholders.
597 of those complaints have been closed as of January 11th.
If you’re having a problem with your insurance company or agent Donelon asks you to reach out to his department for assistance.
A non-formal complaint option is also available. Donelon says his department received several hundred of those related to the hurricanes.
Smaller insurers have a higher rate of complaints filed against them per policyholder than bigger insurers. Donelon says when it comes to responsiveness bigger companies may have some advantages.
Of the major insurers, Liberty Mutual had the lowest complaint rate, while State Farm had the highest.
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Qualifying for the March Congressional special elections is set with 15 candidates running in the 2nd district race and 13 candidates in the 5th.
Political analyst Bernie Pinsonat says Congressman-elect Luke Letlow’s widow, Republican Julia Letow, is a shoo-in to win the 5th and likely to win it outright in the March 20th primary.
Alexandria lawmaker Lance Harris, who was runner-up for the seat in the December run-off, elected not to run again, leaving Letlow as the only established candidate in the race.
In the 2nd District New Orleans Democratic lawmakers Karen Carter Peterson and Troy Carter look most likely to make the run-off. Pinsonat expects this to be a highly competitive race.
Baton Rouge community activist Gary Chambers has also begun to raise a bit of cash for the race.
Of the 28 candidates in the two fields combined Pinsonat says it’s unlikely more than a few of them are serious candidates.
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The LSU men’s basketball team heads into the week on a two game losing streak after losing to Alabama and Kentucky last week. On Saturday, Coach Will Wade’s team trailed by 16 in the first half on Saturday and lost to the Wildcats 82-69….
Trendon Watford led LSU with 26 points and 10 rebounds against Kentucky. But Watford says they lost both games last week by coming out slow…
LSU is at Texas A-and-M on Tuesday night.
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The Ragin Cajuns completed its first sweep of conference play as U-L Lafayette held off Arkansas State 77-74 for a second straight win over the Red Wolves. On Saturday, Cal transfer Jacobi Gordon had a career-high 14 points…
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The Pelicans closed a six-game road trip on Saturday with a disappointing 120-110 loss to Minnesota. New Orleans went 1-and-5 during the trip and Coach Stan Van Gundy says the effort wasn’t there on Saturday and that’s why the Timberwolves….
Cut 19 (17) “….across the board”
Turnovers have been a problem for the Pelicans. They committed 21 turnovers on Saturday. Brandon Ingram had 30 points, but had seven turnovers. Van Gundy was asked if line-up changes should occur…