NEW ORLEANS — The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Louisiana has fallen to the lowest level since the first weeks of the pandemic.
According to the Louisiana Department of Health, there were 172 people with the virus in hospitals across the state on Wednesday. Louisiana was reporting more than 2,300 COVID-19 hospitalizations in mid-January.
"Today is our first day without a public health emergency for COVID in Louisiana in more than two years, and we're also reporting a new COVID hospitalization low again," said Christina Stephens, a spokesperson for Gov. John Bel Edwards' office.
Stephens said that the virus is trending in the right direction more than two weeks after many areas of state gathered to celebrate Mardi Gras. She added that the percentage of tests returning positive on Wednesday was 1.6%, significantly lower than the 30% reported at the height of the Omicron variant's surge.
"None of this means COVID is over - but we have more tools than we've ever had at our disposal in this pandemic," Stephens said.
Most of Louisiana's parishes are classified as a "moderate" community risk for the virus, which means there is a "moderate number of cases with most cases from a known source."
The LDH reported 184 new cases and 21 new deaths linked to the virus on Thursday. In total, 16,981 people in Louisiana have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
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