Health Care
Louisiana senator files anti-transgender legislation
Louisiana Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma, has filed legislation that would require people under 18 years old to get written permission from their parents before pursuing medical care and mental health services based on their gender identity. The bill would make it more difficult for transgender and gender nonconforming minors to get medical assistance if either […]
Louisiana Survey shows economy and pandemic top residents’ concerns
The results of the 2021 Louisiana Survey, released Tuesday, indicate residents are most concerned with the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy, even though more than two-thirds of those surveyed say that financially they’re doing as well or better than they were a year ago. Researchers in the Public Policy Research Lab (PPRL) at LSU’s Reilly […]
Louisiana will make many more people eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday
Gov. John Bel Edwards is expected to greatly expand access to the COVID-19 vaccines in Louisiana Tuesday, adding people with more than 20 health conditions and those who work in jails and prisons to the list of those eligible to receive them. Health care providers who didn’t want to be named shared an expanded list […]
LSU system submits missing sexual harassment reports
LSU submitted more of its campus reports on sexual harassment that are required by the state this week, after the Illuminator and Associated Press published stories saying the higher education system had missed a deadline to file most of them. The reports for LSU’s Alexandria, Eunice and Shreveport campuses were late. The university’s two health […]
Louisiana gave Ochsner Health 20 percent of all COVID-19 vaccine doses, data shows
Ochsner Health was the single largest recipient of COVID-19 vaccine from Louisiana during the first nine weeks of distribution, with its facilities getting about 20 percent of all doses given out by the state, according to an analysis done by Louisiana Illuminator of data publicly released by the Louisiana Department of Health. Ochsner facilities — […]
Louisiana’s bad weather delays vaccine shipments, appointments
The Louisiana Department of Health says bad weather across the state delayed vaccine shipments to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other health care providers. The delays are expected to affect people’s ability to get both first and second doses of vaccines in the coming days. “This is similar to delays in other areas outside of Louisiana […]
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards keeps current COVID-19 restrictions in place
Gov. John Bel Edwards on Tuesday extended the state’s current COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and public gatherings for at least another three weeks. These limitations have been in place since November, when Louisiana started to see its third surge in COVID-19 cases. The COVID-19 rate of infection has been dropping in Louisiana since the second […]
January was Louisiana’s second deadliest month for COVID-19
Louisiana just got through its second deadliest month of the COVID-19 pandemic. In January, 1,178 people died as a result of contracting COVID-19. The only deadlier month for the state was April, when over 1,705 people died of COVID-19, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. Of those who died in January, most people died […]
Lake Charles area to get extra vaccine over the next couple of weeks
Louisiana is giving more vaccine to the Lake Charles region than it would normally be allocated to make up for the fact that it has received fewer vaccine doses per capita than most other parts of the state so far, the Louisiana Department of Health confirmed Tuesday. The jump will be modest, less than four […]
Louisiana will start tracking the Latino COVID-19 vaccination rate
Louisiana is now asking COVID-19 vaccine providers to track whether vaccine recipients are Hispanic or Latino after the state wasn’t initially collecting that data on ethnicity at all. The state government did not ask providers to track whether vaccine recipients were Hispanic or Latino through the first six weeks of vaccine distribution. State health officials […]
The New Orleans area has a higher COVID-19 vaccine rate, but it’s also received the most doses
Over 8 percent of people living in New Orleans and its immediate suburbs had received a COVID-19 vaccine shot as of Tuesday (Jan. 26) — a better rate than any other region in the state. But residents in that area have also had more vaccine available to them. Louisiana has sent more initial doses per […]
Do African Americans in Louisiana have equal access to the vaccine? We can’t say
Louisiana doesn’t know the race or ethnicity of more than half of the people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine shot in the state, making it difficult to determine whether minorities are underrepresented in vaccine distribution — as some have feared would happen. In total, 33 percent of people who received at least one shot […]