Gov. John Bel Edwards has announced the following during his coronavirus news conference Tuesday, Feb. 9:
- More people have now been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Louisiana (received at least one dose) than have contracted the virus
- Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge will administer 7,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine each week, once enough supply of the vaccine is available
- Louisiana will remain in modified Phase 2 for 21 more days, until March 2
“While we still have a long way to go to put this pandemic behind us its only going to happen once enough of us get the vaccine”, said Governor Edwards.
Our Lady of the Lake Hospital and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center partnered together to create a large-scale community vaccination site. Among the first in line, Governor John Bel Edwards who now qualifies for the vaccine after expanding access to include officials handling the COVID-19 response.
“That’s why I’m here today to get vaccinated, that’s why the secretary of state Kyle Adrion is here to get vaccinated”, said Governor Edwards.
The difference between this community site and the mass vaccination sites in places like Houston and Los Angeles is that unlike those, we don’t yet know how many doses Pennington will be receiving on a weekly basis. You also can’t just hop in a drive-thru line and expect to get your shot, you’ll need to schedule an appointment and meet the eligibility requirements which now include anyone age 65 and up.
“So, this is progress but as I mentioned we still have a long way to go”, said Governor Edwards.
Shortly after the elected officials got their shot the doors opened for other patients who scheduled appointments for today. Many say they had been on waiting lists for weeks.
“Well, it was great it was such a relief getting it because now once I get the other one and wait the period of time you have to wait, it frees me to do so many things I’ve been unable to do because of my illness”, said Baton Rouge resident Walda Gibbs.
She says she’s felt mosquito bites more painful than the shot she received.
“I felt nothing, absolutely nothing”, Gibbs boasted.
And although she was more than thrilled her day to get vaccinated had finally come, she couldn’t help but feel like it came a little too late.
“It came a little late because my sister was in a nursing home...and she died and...I wasn’t able to visit her before that”, said Gibbs.
https://www.wafb.com/2021/02/09/la-will-remain-modified-phase-more-days-gov-edwards-says/