COVID-19

To boost the speed of administering COVID-19 vaccines to the community, the Louisiana Department of Health is encouraging retired medical providers to help put shots in arms.
“We do not expect the vaccine to become widely available for the general public until spring or summer, but we are doing all we can now to make sure we are ready when that time comes,” said Dr. Sundée Winder, interim executive director of the Bureau of Community Preparedness. “We appreciate qualified retired medical providers who are willing to join the effort to begin putting this pandemic behind us.”

Trial dates for two upcoming murder trials with local ties could be affected following the Louisiana Supreme Court’s moratorium on criminal and civil trials in all parishes.
The Jan. 11 announcement has pushed back all trials until March 1 due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the state.
The trial of Michael Anthony Guillory, charged with second-degree murder in the 2016 shooting death of a Church Point woman, will likely be delayed a fourth time.

Today, the Louisiana Department of Health confirmed the state’s first identified case of the COVID-19 variant, SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7., frequently referred to as the U.K. variant because it is prevalent in the United Kingdom, in an individual in the Greater New Orleans area.
This variant spreads more easily from one person to another than other viral strains currently circulating in the United States, though It has not been shown to cause more severe disease. Health experts believe current COVID-19 vaccines are effective against the variant strain.