JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said the parish averaged more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases per day over the New Year’s holiday weekend as the Omicron variant surges through the region.
Sheng said that Jefferson Parish reported 4,461 new cases of the virus since Thursday, Dec. 30, with roughly a 30 percent positivity rate.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Greater New Orleans area and Louisiana as a whole have drastically surged in recent weeks. As of Sunday, there were 1,106 people in hospitals across the state with the virus, including 301 patients in the New Orleans area.
Before the Omicron variant surged through the state in mid-December, Louisiana was reporting a pandemic low of about 200 COVID-19 hospitalizations.
The health department said that 77 percent of people currently hospitalized were not vaccinated.
Sheng said that the spike in cases has coincided with rising demand for testing, causing many pharmacies to run out of stock of at-home testing. Jefferson Parish has established a single community testing and vaccination center at the Alario Center at 2000 Segnette Blvd. between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or as testing supplies last. Sheng said residents should get there as soon as possible.
For testing only: Johnny Bright Playground will have COVID testing Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (or while supplies last) To pre-register or view results for this site, which is operated by Accu Reference, please visit DTP-42610 – Accu Reference.
Sheng said parish leaders are working to set up a third testing location somewhere else in the parish. They plan to make an announcement for that site later this week.
Testing results could take up to four days for test results to return.
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