Gov. John Bel Edwards held a news conference yesterday to provide an update on the state’s response to COVID-19 and Hurricane Ida recovery.
This comes after Edwards spent the last week in Washington, D.C. asking the federal government for more assistance for areas affected by both Ida and the historic 2020 hurricane season.
Edwards announced that Louisiana is seeing improvements in the statewide percent positivity, cases, and hospitalizations, with hospitalizations dipping under 1,000 for the first time since July.
But he said there is still a very high level of COVID in all 64 parishes of the state and for that reason, Edwards he extended the state’s indoor mask mandate for another 28 days.
Edwards also said that children continue to get sick from the COVID-19 delta variant, saying seven pediatric deaths have been confirmed during the state’s fourth surge.
The Louisiana Department of Health also announced an alarming increase in severe pregnancy outcomes during the COVID-19 Delta surge. According to LDH, 14 COVID-19 severe pregnancy outcomes resulted in critical illness or death in Louisiana since mid-July of this year, an alarming trend as the delta variant circulates around the state.
