BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Department of Health estimates the proportion of Omicron cases in the state has increased from 88.5% to 90.2% for the week ending January 1.*
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the proportion of Omicron in HHS Region 6 (which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas) is 98.2%. Furthermore, 63 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes (98.4%) are at the two highest levels of community transmission; one remains unclassified due to low test volume. This is an increase from last week’s 95%.
COVID-19 cases and emergency department visits are at an all-time high throughout Louisiana, and hospitalizations are high. These increases are attributable to the Omicron variant, which spreads faster than other variants and is now the dominant strain in our state.
LDH recommends getting vaccinated and boosted if eligible, masking indoors as well as outside when distancing is not possible, and limiting exposure.
To learn about vaccination sites, call Louisiana’s vaccine hotline at 855-453-0774. For a list of locations, visit https://ldh.la.gov/covidvaccine or text a ZIP code to GETVAX (438829) in English or VACUNA (822862) in Spanish.
*NOTE: LDH’s estimate for the Omicron proportion is preliminary and subject to change as more sequencing data are reported.
