LUY-Development

Category: COVID-19

  • COVID closes some Office of Motor Vehicle locations

    COVID closes some Office of Motor Vehicle locations

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana officials are urging residents to go online for Office of Motor Vehicles services, and say 12 offices are temporarily closing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    The office posted a list of those locations on its website and said reopening dates will be posted when available.

    “Louisiana residents should only visit OMV field offices if it’s absolutely necessary. Our online services are always open and we encourage guests to visit expresslane.org before going to a field office,” office commissioner Karen St. Germain told WDSU.

    The surging omicron variant has been leading to closures across the country as businesses scramble to fill gaps created by employees testing positive. Airlines canceled flights because crew members had the virus.

    In Louisiana, state officials said on social media Monday that hospitalizations of people infected with the coronavirus had doubled over the course of a week.

  • Shreveport reinstates face masks for city buildings, Mayor Perkins tests positive for COVID

    Shreveport reinstates face masks for city buildings, Mayor Perkins tests positive for COVID

    Baton Rouge / louisianaradionetwork.com

    The City of Shreveport has reinstated the use of face masks in city buildings due to the rapid increase in COVID cases. Mayor Adrian Perkins issued the directive Monday and Perkins himself received a positive result for COVID after visiting one of LSU-Health Shreveport’s testing sites.

    “I actually wanted to see what the process was like for our citizens that were getting tested. So, I went to a site here and did my test and it came back positive. So, I immediately jumped into the protocols necessary to protect me and protect my family,” said Perkins.

    Perkins conducted a phone interview from his home with LRN Monday and said he’s quarantining while relatives are in town visiting for Christmas.

    The mayor said he reinstated the mask requirement for city buildings in hopes of reducing the spread of the extremely transmissible Omicron variant. Perkins said they are watching the numbers and more mitigation could be added in the near future.

    “So, we’re doing all that we can right now so we’ve implemented this mask mandate in hopes that it will curb, and if it doesn’t, we’re going to continue to look at other measures to keep our employees and citizens safe as well,” said Perkins.

    Like Thanksgiving many gathered outside their immediate household for Christmas and health officials expect to see cases increase, in addition to hospitalizations in the coming weeks. Perkins said if you think for any reason, you might have been exposed to get tested.

    “And if you’re around family members that you’re not typically around or if you have a runny nose or anything, if there’s any indication whatsoever that you might be impacted by this virus, please, please go and get tested,” said Perkins.

    For a list of COVID testing sites click here.

    louisianaradionetwork.com/2021/12/27/22062/

  • Free Mobile Covid Testing Tuesday in Adams Co

    Free Mobile Covid Testing Tuesday in Adams Co

    Mississippians can choose between a Rapid or PCR Covid-19 test on Tuesday, September 7th.

    Drive-through site Tuesday, September 7th, open from 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

    · Adams County Safe Room, 323 Liberty Road, Natchez, MS

    Residents who live in and around the Natchez-Adams County area and experiencing symptoms related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus can get a free Covid-19 test.

    Register at: https://covidschedule.umc.edu/ or call (601) 496-7200.

    Because of high demand for testing, please schedule as appointment ahead of time and provide some information about your symptoms. You can also make an appointment at the testing site, but same-day openings may not be available.

    Residents must enter the site from the Liberty Road entrance by the National Guard Armory.

  • COVID vaccinations increase in Adams County

    COVID vaccinations increase in Adams County

    The latest figures show progress in getting folks in Adams County vaccinated against COVID-19. The number of people in the county who have gotten at least one dose of a COVID vaccine is up 8 percentage points since July. As of Monday, just over 48% of Adams County residents had gotten at least one jab, while nearly 39% were fully vaccinated. Those numbers were just shy of 40 and 35 percent respectively as of a month ago. Those numbers were also released before the Food and Drug Administration announced full approval of the Pfizer vaccine Monday, a move that is expected to ease concerns for some who haven’t yet gotten the COVID shot.

  • Livestock medicine doesn’t work against COVID, doctors warn

    Livestock medicine doesn’t work against COVID, doctors warn

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Health Department is warning people not to use livestock medicine to try to treat COVID-19, after poison-control centers received calls about some ingesting it and becoming ill, including two people who were hospitalized.

    Meanwhile, as Mississippi continues seeing a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs is reminding residents of an order he issued last year under which residents who contract the virus can be fined or jailed if they don’t quarantine.

    His tweet about the order on Friday received both support and criticism.

    Mississippi’s Department of Health reported Monday that 7,249 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the state over the weekend. Department officials also announced that 56 more people had died of the coronavirus, bringing the death toll since the start of the pandemic to 8,047.

    At least 70% of recent calls to the Mississippi Poison Control Center have been related to ingestion of livestock or animal formulations of ivermectin purchased at livestock supply centers, Mississippi Department of Health officials said last week. They did not say exactly how many calls were received.

    Some symptoms associated with ivermectin toxicity are rash, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, neurological disorders and potentially severe hepatitis requiring hospitalization.

    Most callers — 85% — have had mild symptoms, health department officials said. One person was advised to see a physician because of the high dosage they said they took.

    “Patients should be advised to not take any medications intended to treat animals and should be instructed to only take ivermectin as prescribed by their physician,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers wrote in a memo Friday. “Animal drugs are highly concentrated for large animals and can be highly toxic in humans.”

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved ivermectin in both people and animals for some parasitic worms and for head lice and skin conditions. It has not approved its use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans.

    For those who contract the virus, failure to quarantine, if ordered to do so by a health officer, is punishable by a fine of $500 to $5,000, imprisonment for up to five years, or both, under Dobbs’ order.

    Responding to questions Monday from The Associated Press, Health Department communications director Liz Sharlot said the COVID-19 isolation order, which applies to schools as well as individuals, has never been enforced. “This is an option if necessary,” Sharlot said. She said enforcement is up to local law enforcement officers.

    More than 20,000 students were quarantined for exposure to COVID-19 the week of Aug. 9-13, according to the most recent data released by the department of health. On Monday, the Greenville Public School District in the Mississippi Delta announced it was quarantining its entire high school because of confirmed cases among students.

     

  • As COVID surges, Mississippi sets up second field hospital

    As COVID surges, Mississippi sets up second field hospital

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s only Level 1 trauma center is setting up a second emergency field hospital in a parking garage that will handle some of the sickest COVID-19 patients as the virus continues to ravage the state.

    Samaritan’s Purse will set up the mobile intensive care unit with a team of medical staff in a garage nearby Children’s of Mississippi, the state’s only pediatric hospital. Since the start of the pandemic, the Christian relief charity has set up five other emergency hospitals in areas of the world hard hit by the virus, like New York City and Los Angeles County.

    “The COVID-19 situation is worsening in our state,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said in a statement. Woodward is also dean of the School of Medicine.

    Mississippi, one of least vaccinated states in the country, has seen numbers of new coronavirus double in the past two weeks, surpassing records for hospitalizations all previous surges of the virus since the start of the pandemic.

    The state had an average of 1,475 new coronavirus cases per day on July 31 and about 3,285 new cases per day on Aug. 14, according to data from Johns Hopkins University analyzed by The Associated Press.

    State officials say they have seen more children hospitalized with coronavirus than ever before. As of Friday, 18 children were hospitalized with coronavirus in Mississippi, according to data reported by hospitals to the state Department of Health. On Sunday, five children were in an intensive care unit, with four on ventilators.

    Department of Health spokesperson Liz Sharlot said Monday that health officials heard this week about the death of a child between the ages of 11 and 17 of coronavirus in the state. A total of five children have died of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

    After facing a shortage of beds and staff needed to treat patients, the University of Mississippi Medical Center set up one emergency field hospital in a different parking garage on its campus last week, with the help of the federal government.

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed a team of three dozen physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists.

    Woodward said transport trucks arrived at the medical center Sunday afternoon to begin setting up the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital, which is expected to be ready for patients by midweek.

    In the coming days, an additional tent will be set up where people who are positive for COVID-19 can receive monoclonal antibody treatment, Woodward said.

  • Mississippi sees increase in COVID cases in those under 50

    Mississippi sees increase in COVID cases in those under 50

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Health care systems across Mississippi are seeing a surge of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in people under 50, a shift from earlier in the pandemic when the virus was predominately affecting older adults. A hospital official said there were only six available ICU beds in the entire state.

    “Most of the people that are unvaccinated in Mississippi are under 50, so that’s the population that we’re seeing,” said Dr. Alan Jones, Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. “It’s attacking the vulnerable and the vulnerable are the unvaccinated.”

    In response to the surge, Mississippi State University will be requiring masks indoors for the fall 2021 semester, the school announced in a news release Wednesday.

    Officials at Mississippi’s only level-one trauma center and teaching hospital said Wednesday that 90% of the new cases and hospitalizations they are seeing are among unvaccinated people.

    The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 2,821 new cases of coronavirus in a single day Wednesday, numbers not seen in the state since the last surge of the virus over the winter. Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Dr. LouAnn Woodward said during the last major surge, the vaccine was not yet available.

    Woodward said it’s exhausting for medical officials to know there’s a tool available now that can be used to help fight the virus and people are refusing it.

    “It is almost impossible to put into words the frustration that we all feel, the disappointment that here we are again and honestly, some low level of anger,” said Woodward, who is also dean of the School of Medicine. “There are a lot of people in health care right now that feel pretty mad about this situation.”

    More than 1,000 people were hospitalized with coronavirus in Mississippi on Wednesday. University of Mississippi Medical Center Chief Administrative Officer Dr. Jonathan Wilson said there were only six available ICU beds in the entire state.

    There have been days in the past few weeks when there were as many as 60 people waiting for beds at the medical center, Woodward said.

    “There are moments when we’re holding what I would say is a hospital’s worth of patients in the emergency department, in the recovery room and other places like that are waiting for a bed,” said Woodward. “That just puts a strain on the entire system.”

    At the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the surge in virus cases has been complicated by an ongoing staffing shortage. Jones said there are currently hundreds of positions open at the hospital. There are close to 30 beds that aren’t being used because there are not enough employees to care for the patients, he said.

    “I think I can safely say that other health systems around us and the city and the state are at a breaking point,” he said.

    Jones said there were 94 people hospitalized with coronavirus Wednesday at the medical center, with 13 of those cases being children.

  • Governor Tate Reeves Releases New Executive Order

    Governor Tate Reeves Releases New Executive Order

    Today, Governor Tate Reeves signed Executive Order 1549. This order will go into effect at 5:00 PM on March 3rd and stay in effect until March 31st.

    “Today, I signed what I expect will be one of my last executive orders regarding COVID-19. Our hospitalizations have plummeted, and our case numbers have fallen dramatically as well. In fact, our case numbers have fallen to the point where no county meets the original criteria for a mask mandate,” said Governor Tate Reeves.

    “I am replacing our current orders with recommendations. Everyone should continue to listen to Dr. Dobbs and other health advisors for the best possible wisdom regarding how you can personally stem any risk of catching COVID. Their insight is valuable. The only rules that will remain in this order are a capacity limit of 50% on indoor arenas, and those that govern K-12 schools.”

    Mississippians are encouraged, though not ordered, to wear a face covering and practice social distancing. K-12 schools will still require a mask where social distancing is not possible. Seating for K-12 extracurricular activities at outdoor venues is now set at 50% capacity and 25% maximum seating capacity inside. Seating capacity for indoor bowl and arena seating is now increased to 50%.

  • Louisiana governor eases virus rules, lets bars open indoors

    Louisiana governor eases virus rules, lets bars open indoors

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s bars can reopen indoors, restaurants can hold more customers and churches won’t have capacity limits for worship services, under loosened coronavirus rules announced Tuesday by Gov. John Bel Edwards.

    The eased “Phase 3” restrictions — which come as Louisiana’s new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have continued to drop — will take effect Wednesday across the state, unless a local mayor or parish president enacts tougher limits. Louisiana’s statewide mask mandate, in place since July, will remain.

    The new requirements will stay in place until March 31.

    “We’re currently moving in the right direction and have been for several weeks now, and certainly, we’re all gratified by that,” the Democratic governor said. “We know, however, we still have a lot of work to do before we get out of this pandemic.”

    Restaurants, cafes, spas, salons, movie theaters and other nonessential businesses that had been limited to 50% of their occupancy limit can move to 75% capacity. The exception is for gyms, which Edwards is requiring to stay at 50% capacity.

    Music will be allowed at indoor locations again, though with a long list of requirements for venues from the fire marshal’s office and no dance floors allowed. Conferences and other gatherings can restart at convention centers, if the events get fire marshal approval for the setup.

    Bars had largely been limited to outdoor service, delivery and to-go orders unless they have licenses to operate like restaurants. But under Edwards’ new rules, bars will be able to let customers back inside at 25% of their occupancy limit, with a maximum of 250 people.

    If the bars are located in a parish that has seen low rates of coronavirus tests returning positive for two weeks, they can increase their indoor seating to 50% capacity, up to 250 people — if local parish leaders authorize it.

    Patrons won’t be able to walk back and forth to the bar to order drinks, however. Direct table service will be required. An 11 p.m. curfew on alcohol sales will stay in place.

    Religious services will have no limits on size, but Edwards’ new executive order still will require social distancing at churches. And different rules and limits will exist on other, non-worship service gatherings at churches.

    Among other restrictions, indoor events such as weddings will be limited to 50% of a building’s capacity, with no more than 250 people.

    Many of the capacity limits are similar to what Edwards enacted in September, but the governor toughened the rules in late November as Louisiana saw its third coronavirus surge.

    Since January, the state has seen sharp drops in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and people hospitalized with the disease. Hospitalizations stood at 629 patients Tuesday after topping 2,000 in January.

    Louisiana’s daily average of new cases of COVID-19 over the past two weeks has fallen 21%, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The percentage of tests returning positive for the disease has dropped to 5% statewide, after reaching more than 13% at one point in early January.

    Meanwhile, 14% of the state’s population has received at least the first dose of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that have been available since December. More than 368,000 people have gotten both required doses, according to the state health department. A third vaccine, the single-dose shot from Johnson & Johnson will start rolling out this week.

    Louisiana ranked 32nd among states Tuesday in the number of vaccine doses administered per capita, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state fell behind in its vaccine distribution because of a week of icy, snowy weather.

  • Vaccine access expands to Louisiana teachers, day care staff

    Vaccine access expands to Louisiana teachers, day care staff

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana will expand coronavirus vaccine access next week to another half-million people, allowing teachers, child care workers and older people with certain medical conditions to get the shots, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Thursday.

    The full list of people who will be newly eligible starting Monday includes K-12 teachers, administrators and school support staff; those who work at day care centers, early learning facilities and other sites that provide childcare; pregnant women; and people age 55 to 64 who have one of a dozen preexisting conditions. Those conditions include cancer, Type 2 diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sickle cell disease, obesity and chronic kidney disease, among others.

    Edwards said he widened the availability of the vaccine because the state is seeing an increased supply of doses each week from the federal government.

    “We’re going to have more doses to administer next week than we’ve ever had before. From that perspective, it’s exactly the right time to add that next priority group,” the Democratic governor said.

    Meanwhile, nearly half the estimated 1.2 million people already eligible for the COVID-19 immunizations in Louisiana have received at least their first dose of the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

    Still, demand continues to exceed the available supply of doses, in Louisiana and across the nation. The 475,000 people newly eligible Monday will have to find a vaccine provider with an available appointment, an effort that isn’t always quick or simple.

    Teachers had been vocal about frustration they weren’t eligible for the shots — particularly with a national push to reopen schools to in-person instruction, many of Louisiana’s students already back in classrooms for months and Edwards having won his elections with teacher union support.

    “Being able to get to them is really important for our state. As we all know, they’ve been on the front lines of this pandemic and play a critical role in our continued recovery,” said Edwards, whose wife was a teacher.

    About 64% of Louisiana’s K-12 schools are holding in-person classes and another 15% are offering some onsite instruction, according to state data.

    State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said in a statement he was “grateful and relieved” to see vaccine access expanded to early childhood workers and school employees. He said he expected that “will enable even more Louisiana centers and schools to be fully open to serve students, families and communities.”

    Those who gain access under the expansions announced Thursday will be added to a list that includes anyone age 65 and older; health care employees; law enforcement, firefighters and other first responders; people with kidney failure; people with disabilities over the age of 16 who receive community- or home-based services and their providers; people who live and work at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities; state and local officials handling COVID-19 response; and workers for the upcoming March and April elections.

    With those additions, more than 1.6 million of Louisiana’s 4.6 million residents will have access to the coronavirus shots — but most of them can only get vaccinated if they schedule their own appointments through the network of hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and community vaccine sites administering the doses.

    President Joe Biden’s administration has been increasing the vaccine doses sent weekly to states, through the allocations that states get to distribute to vaccine providers and through direct shipments to pharmacies.

    However, this week’s vaccine shipments to Louisiana and several other states have been delayed by icy weather that has disrupted electricity and closed roads, forcing cancellations of immunization appointments.

    Edwards said Louisiana’s shipments for this week could reach the state as late as Saturday, so vaccine providers could take several days to work through the backlog of doses. The governor’s top public health adviser, Dr. Joe Kanter, said his office hadn’t received any reports of wasted vaccine because of the icy weather.

    Nearly 542,000 people in the state have received at least their first dose of the two-dose vaccine so far, with more than 271,000 people getting both doses, according to health department data. Louisiana ranked 16th among states Thursday in the number of vaccine doses administered per capita, according to the CDC.