Governor, top health official warn more UK COVID-19 variant cases likely already present in Louisiana than 3 now confirmed

Gov. John Bel Edwards confirmed Thursday during his weekly briefing that the second and third cases of the UK variant of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Louisiana and 14 more suspected cases are still being evaluated by the CDC.

BATON ROUGE, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Louisiana's governor and his chief public health advisor are warning that there are likely more cases of the more transmissible UK variant of COVID-19 already present in the state than the second and third cases confirmed Thursday.

The state’s first identified case the variant, known as SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7., was confirmed on Jan. 16 in a patient in Region 1, which includes the New Orleans area. One of the new cases confirmed Thursday is in the same region. The other is in Region 5, which includes the Lake Charles area.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said during a briefing Thursday afternoon that there are 14 suspected cases in the state still being evaluated by the CDC. Dr. Joe Kanter with the Office of Public Health said eight of the suspected cases are in Region 1 and six more are in Region 5. He warned that the newly confirmed cases are "the tip of the iceberg" because of how little genomic sequencing the U.S. is currently doing. "We anticipate those cases are going to grow."

"The bottom line is, this variant is present in the United States, it is present in Louisiana, we know that it transmits more easily. We all need to take this very, very seriously," Edwards said.

While the latest data on COVID-19 in the state show the overall positivity rate has dropped below 10 percent and hospitalizations are beginning to slowly decline, Edwards said the baseline numbers are still too high.

"We see some improvements, but we're in a very difficult place because of high levels of numbers and these variants are very concerning."

Still, Edwards said there is no indication yet that restrictions need to be tightened due to the presence of the new strain of the virus in the state. Instead, he urged continued and consistent masking and social distancing.

This variant is frequently referred to as the U.K. variant because it was first detected in the United Kingdom. This variant spreads more easily from one person to another than other viral strains currently circulating in the United States. However, current COVID-19 vaccines are thought to be effective against the variant strain. The state health department says further study is needed to determine if there is increased disease severity associated with the variant strain.

The CDC has warned that the new, more infectious variant will probably become the dominant version in the U.S. by March.

More than 59,000 Louisianans have already received both doses of the vaccine, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. A total of 397,371 doses have been administered statewide.

Edwards said Thursday that the greatest challenge continues to be the number of vaccines allocated to the state, but noted that Louisiana has been told to expect its allocation to increase by 16% next week to 67,350.

“We still have a large demand for vaccine in the current eligible population and we’re going to stay in the current priority groups for now," Edwards said. The current priority groups include those aged 70 and up, as well as health care workers and first responders.

The Louisiana Department of Health reported 2,517 new cases and 55 more deaths from COVID-19 Thursday, bringing the total cases statewide to 394,909 and deaths to 8,743. Of the new cases reported since Tuesday, the LDH says 1,845 are confirmed and 672 are probable.

The number of patients in the hospital statewide with COVID-19 has continued to decline since reaching an all-time high on Jan. 7 at 2,069. As of Wednesday, according to the latest data available, there were 1,590 COVID-19 patients hospitalized across the state, with 206 on ventilators.

In Northwest Louisiana, hospitalizations have ticked back up over the past three days to 266 after steadily declining since peaking at an all-time high of 374 on Jan. 4. There are now 30 patients on ventilators.