Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge is requiring all to wear face masks. Infectious disease specialist at the Lake Dr. Catherine O’Neal while there are reports that symptoms from the Omicron variant aren’t as bad as Delta and not as many are being hospitalized, it’s still too early to know the impacts of the newest variant.
Cut 7 (12) “…everybody has it.”
And another reason to mask up is because the monoclonal antibody infusion treatments they have are only for the Delta variant.
State epidemiologist Theresa Sokol says the CDC recommends indoor masking for everyone regardless of vaccination status in areas with high or substantial community transmission.
Cut 13 (10) “…of transmission.”
Today the state reports 2,205 new COVID cases and 272 are currently hospitalized an increase of 33-percent from this time last week.
The Census Bureau says Louisiana is continuing to lose people to other states, a trend that’s been going on for years.