NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana State University announced today that in-person classes will resume on both campuses starting Monday, Feb. 14 due to decreasing COVID case rates.
The school also said that masks are no longer required indoors or outdoors, but they are still encouraged.
The Louisiana Department of Health reported 2,423 new cases and 51 new deaths linked to the virus on Wednesday. Hospitalizations fell to 1,435 patients across the state, a significant drop from 2,367 patients recorded during the Omicron variant’s peak in January.
The state is also seeing a decline in the percentage of tests returning positive. Between Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, about 14.3% of tests returned as positive, compared to the around 20% reported the week prior. However, the entire state is still classified as a “high” community risk for the virus, which means there is widespread, uncontrolled transmission with many undetected cases.