Gov. Edwards will hold a news conference discuss the state’s continued rise of COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations today at 3:30 p.m. The governor is also expected to announce whether or not Louisiana will remain in it’s current ‘modified’ Phase Two of reopening the economy, which is set to expire Wednesday, Jan. 13. Louisiana has been in a modified version of Phase Two since Nov. 25, 2020. Gov. Edwards will either issue another executive order to keep the state in a modified version of Phase Two or he will issue a new executive order to move the state into a different phase.
On the same day as Gov. Edwards’ last public address officials with the Louisiana Department of Health reported 6,882 new cases of COVID-19, saying it was the highest number of daily cases reported to date in Louisiana that did not contain a backlog or two days of reporting. The previous highest number of cases reported was 6,754 new cases on Dec. 30, 2020. On Friday, Jan. 8, LDH reported the highest number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the pandemic, with 2,069 patients.
Gov. Edwards is also expected to discuss the state’s continued distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday LDH officials announced healthcare providers in all of the state’s 64 parishes would receive very limited doses of the vaccine this week.
