NEW ORLEANS — The number of hospitalizations from COVID in Louisiana has dropped to 952 Wednesday as the state nears 14,000 dead from the disease since the pandemic began last March.
Wednesday's numbers released by the Louisiana Department of Health show 1,048 new cases reported and 50 additional deaths across the state. More than 739,000 cases of COVID have been confirmed in Louisiana since March 2020.
Over that same time period, 13,900 people have died from COVID or from conditions exacerbated by the illness.
Percent positivity numbers, a measure of how many people per 100,000 have caught COVID, indicate Louisiana is moving out of the fourth surge of the virus.
Only one parish in Southeast Louisiana — including the metro New Orleans area — has a percent positivity over 10% as of Wednesday's update. Terrebonne Parish, which has an 11.2% positivity rate, was devastated by Hurricane Ida, with many residents forced to shelter together in tight quarters ahead of the storm.
Other parishes nearby appear to have dropping numbers.
In fact, St. Bernard Parish has been downgraded from "Highest" risk of COVID transmission to simply "High" risk.
That's good news for Louisiana's hospital systems. The peak of the fourth wave brought more than 3,000 COVID patients to hospitals across the state, prompting renewed fears of overwhelming capacity at many facilities.
But that number is again in the hundreds instead of thousands, with just over 950 people hospitalized statewide. Unvaccinated people account for 85% of those hospitalizations.
Despite the positive trends, Gov. John Bel Edwards is continuing a cautious approach to his coronavirus response. The governor on Tuesday extended the statewide mask mandate by another four weeks, through Oct. 27.
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