Restrictions on Louisiana’s Phase 2 Coronavirus Extend Another 21 Days with Mardi Gras Approaching | Coronavirus

Several senior state officials, including Governor John Bel Edwards, received an injection of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday at a new community vaccination clinic that officials hope to inoculate thousands a week while the state runs to immunize the most of its residents.

And while COVID-19 numbers are improving in Louisiana, Edwards has extended the state’s current restrictions – keeping many bars closed for in-house service and limiting occupancy at most companies to 50% – for another three weeks.

The new variant of the virus in the UK, which is more transmissible, is circulating in the state, worrying health officials who predict another increase in cases before the state can achieve collective immunity through vaccination.

The governor also noted that although the virus has declined somewhat in recent weeks, cases and hospitalizations have stabilized at high levels. He stressed that Fat Tuesday, which helped spread the virus control over Louisiana last year, is approaching.

“There is still a lot to worry about,” said Edwards. “I am very hopeful that the next time we announce a new proclamation, we will be able to ease some restrictions if we continue on the path we are currently on.”

.@LouisianaGovgetting his first injection of the Pfizer vaccine #lalege #lagov pic.twitter.com/2CpjPjeV8w

– Sam Karlin (@samkarlin) February 9, 2021

The governor expanded the number of people eligible to receive the vaccine on Monday to include people aged 65 and over, some election officials and the first respondents. He made his Unified Command Group – an emergency response office he leads – eligible, along with a few other government COVID response officers.

As part of that expansion, Edwards sat down shortly after his press conference and rolled up his sleeves to receive the first of two injections of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine. He was shot at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, a site that was opened to eligible residents on Tuesday.

The Nossa Senhora do Lago Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, the largest hospital in the state, transferred the vaccinations being carried out at its main hospital in Essen Lane to the new location about a kilometer away, with plans to inject about 1,500 people a week, spokesman Ryan Cross said. Eventually, the hospital expects to make more than 7,000 a week.

But that depends on a supply of doses that has been uneven in Louisiana and across the country. Edwards said he did not compromise a number of doses at the Pennington facility because the federal government’s supply to the state is still uncertain.

He said the Biden government had told him to wait in the next three weeks for at least the same number of doses the state received this week. The federal government is also planning to send more doses directly to federally qualified health centers in the United States, including at least one in each state, although the number of doses is unclear, Edwards added.

Louisiana as of Tuesday had injected more people with at least one injection of the COVID-19 vaccine than the number of positive COVID-19 tests since the start of the pandemic, a milestone that Edwards highlighted.

Still, Dr. Joe Kanter, the state health officer, said he does not think Louisiana is seeing the number of people who have contracted COVID-19 and those who have been vaccinated are slowing transmission of the virus yet. It is not yet clear how long immunity against the disease lasts, he said, and he saw patients in Louisiana tested positive three times during the course of the pandemic.

About 414,000 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Louisiana, including 55,492 “probable” cases identified through rapid tests. Providers in the state gave 448,122 people at least one injection of the vaccine.

Kanter encouraged people to be vaccinated when their turn comes, even if they have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past. The UK variant is present in Louisiana in “much larger numbers” than the state can confirm, he added.

“We probably have more cases ahead of us,” he said.

The governor put Louisiana back on a modified version of Phase 2 restrictions in November, effectively shutting down the bars for in-house services and putting most companies at 50% occupancy. Parishes with a percentage of positivity – the share of tests that give a positive result – less than 5% for two weeks can reopen bars for 25% of indoor service, while all bars can offer outdoor service.

Louisiana experienced a wave of COVID cases and hospitalizations beginning in November, a wave that was exacerbated by the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays. Hospitalizations reached 2,069 on January 7, the height of the last wave.

In recent weeks, the numbers have improved. Hospitalizations dropped to 1,122, according to the latest data. Still, it is greater than the number of hospitalizations when Edwards announced the lifting of restrictions in late November.

Louisiana has published an average of 941 cases in each of the past seven days, up from nearly 3,000 a day in the week that ended a month ago.

Meanwhile, the state has secured more doses of vaccine this week, after about a month of static shipments. The Biden government sent more doses, and the state recovered part of a federal partnership aimed at inoculating residents and asylum workers because many of the doses were not being used.

When Governor Edwards first announced that elderly patients would have access to the vaccine on New Year’s Eve, Walda Gibbs was disappointed. At 68, she was barely 70. She was battling a lung disease and completed treatments last summer, but her doctor – Catherine O’Neal, the leading infectious disease specialist in Nossa Senhora do Lago – warned her to remain careful until she could be vaccinated.

She had tried to get a dose at a pharmacy after hearing that such facilities could have extra doses available to the general public at the end of the day, without success.

On Tuesday, Gibbs had his first chance against Pennington. She cried as she reflected on the long wait for the vaccine. She hoped to visit her sister, who lived in a nursing home, after finishing treatment for her lung problem, but her sister died.

“I’m waiting because I couldn’t even go to church,” said Gibbs. “People kept asking me: ‘can you come to play the violin, can you come to play in the church?’ Sorry, I can’t do that until I get the vaccine. “