NEW ORLEANS — Gov. John Bel Edwards said that while Louisiana's COVID numbers have "decreased very slightly" over the past three days, the signs are still not good, especially in schools as classes have resumed for the 2021-22 school year.
Edwards pointed to the drop of COVID-related hospitalizations over the past few days from a peak of 3,022 to just under 3,000 at a total of 2,999 reported Friday. It was the first time in five days that the number of hospitalized COVID patients fell below 3,000.
Edwards added that the state is no longer leading the nation in terms of growth rate in cases per capita, but he cautioned that this is only over the past three days and isn't necessarily reason to cheer.
"This is just a couple of three days," he said. "It's not yet a trend."
New figures from the Louisiana Department of Health show that there were 2,999 patients in hospitals across the state with the virus. That is a net decline of 23 patients from Wednesday and marks two days in a row of decreasing hospitalizations. The LDH says 91 percent of those patients are unvaccinated against the virus.
Edwards especially decried the situation in the state's K-12 schools where he said the first two weeks had a report of 5,328 children with COVID along with 750 staff.
He said that another 23,000 close contacts have missed at least some time in school. And, he reminded the audience that several school systems haven't started classes.
A total of 2,444 students were reported to have tested positive for COVID in the week of Aug. 9-15 - a total Edwards said is higher than any week in the previous school year and higher than the first two months of the 20-21 school year.
"We cannot keep our schools open or our kids safe without masks," he said. "There is a very significant burden in this population. Transmission is very high."
Christian Stephens, a spokesperson for Gov. John Bel Edwards' office did say that the declining hospitalizations were good news.
"We still have far too many people in the hospital in Louisiana, but this is a tiny piece of hopeful news," Stephens said.
Louisiana also reported 5,922 new cases and 67 new deaths due to the virus since Thursday. In total, 11,918 people in Louisiana have died from the virus since the pandemic began.
Stephens said 28 percent of Friday's newly reported cases - about 1,668 - were children.
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