With federal officials warning of a potential fourth surge of COVID-19 infections amid the loosening of restrictions by numerous states including Louisiana, coronavirus numbers in western St. Tammany Parish are manageable at the moment, according to St. Tammany Health System Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Torcson.
Speaking to WDSU-Ch. 6 on Wednesday (March 30) for its 4, 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, Dr. Torcson said the number of COVID-positive inpatients at STHS’s Covington hospital have plateaued in the single digits. That’s a far cry from the pandemic’s local height in January, when the hospital had 66 COVID-positive inpatients, representing fully a third of the patients in the hospital at the time.
One key to those improved numbers: vaccines.
"I think back on the earlier days in the pandemic when we were struggling for test kits and all the other PPE and the supplies that we needed – to now to have such an abundance of vaccines is really refreshing and it serves our community very well," Dr. Torcson told WDSU’s Jennifer Crockett.
He added: “The prediction models and the data we’re seeing around COVID numbers, so far western St. Tammany is in a good position.”
That being said, only 15% of people in the state Department of Health’s Region 9 – which encompasses St. Tammany, Washington, Tangipahoa, Livingston and St. Helena parishes – are fully vaccinated against COVID, so it’s important that people not let down their guard or that feared fourth surge just might materialize.
That’s a message reiterated Tuesday by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who, while loosening occupancy restrictions on a number of businesses, also renewed the state’s mask mandate for at least another four weeks.
“At this point in the pandemic, the three best tools we have to win the race, which means to slow the spread, are for people to be vaccinated, for people to wear masks and for people to distance, so that’s where we’re going to be focused on going forward,” Gov. Edwards said.
As of Wednesday morning, St. Tammany Health System had six COVID-positive inpatients at its Covington hospital. To-date, the health system has administered 19,451 COVID vaccines.
For more information on COVID-19 in western St. Tammany Parish, visit StTammany.health/COVID19.