ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — Doctors on the Northshore warn we're currently on our way to a fourth surge in COVID-19 cases. Health care leaders joined St. Tammany Parish officials Wednesday to push people who are not vaccinated to get their shots.
St. Tammany Parish is seeing its highest number of COVID cases in a single day since January, with 201 confirmed cases reported since Tuesday.
"We're on our way to a fourth spike in cases," Parish President Mike Cooper said.
St. Tammany Parish has a 42 percent vaccination rate.
"If people were dying in mass from these vaccines, we would know it. People are dying from this pandemic," St. Tammany Coroner Dr. Charles Preston said to those scared of the vaccine.
Preston is warning people not to listen to anti-vaccination misinformation videos being spread on social media.
"They were very concerning because they are very well made videos with people who appear reputable that give a foundation of facts and quickly veer off into total fantasy. These videos, this misinformation, is exquisitely dangerous," he said.
Dr. Michael Hill at St. Tammany Hospital said COVID hospitalizations have doubled over the last couple weeks.
"It's primarily in the unvaccinated. There are occasionally people who are vaccinated that can get the disease, but its usually milder. We've seen a significant demographic shift to younger people and I think that needs to be stressed. Just because you're under the age of 50, doesn’t mean you cant get sick and quite sick," Dr. Hill said.
"The biggest way to help those health professionals is to go get those vaccines," said Dr. Timothy Riddell, Regional Medical Director of Ochsner Northshore.
For now, the parish will not implement any new mandates.
"That’s not to say it's off the table in the future," Cooper said.
St. Tammany Parish's percent positivity rate over the last week was 11.9 percent.