Edwards: ‘COVID transmission has never been higher’ in state

Gov. John Bel Edwards spoke Thursday at a news conference on the COVID-19 spike following the New Year’s weekend.
Louisiana reported more than 30,000 new cases and over 1,000 hospitalizations statewide after the four-day holiday period.
On Thursday, the state set another single-day high record with more than 14,000 new cases reported.
The Louisiana Department of Health says Omicron is now the dominant strain in the state.
Edwards emphasized that Louisiana is seeing a huge spike in reinfections with the Omicron variant.
Edwards said there were less than 300 reinfections in November, whereas December saw 11,278 reinfections.
As of Dec. 29, Louisiana has a 27.1% positivity rate. Just a week prior, it was a little over 10%.
Dr. Joseph Kanter says Louisiana has yet to see the peak of the Omicron surge.
Kanter added that while many people will have milder symptoms with the Omicron variant than seen with the Delta variant, he pointed out that that is only the average.
Kanter says the best way to prevent extreme symptoms is to receive a booster shot.
In reference to the shortage of at-home tests, Kanter said the demand is simply higher for antigen tests, but there is not a shortage of PCR tests that are reportedly more sensitive to the Omicron variant than the antigen tests.
Kanter also reiterated that while cloth masks are effective, they don’t provide as much protection as N-95 masks.