Fewer Louisianans seek COVID tests; experts say testing helps track virus & variants
Louisiana sees less people getting tested for COVID-19 By Sabrina Wilson | March 3, 2021 at 6:18 PM CST - Updated March 3 at 6:18 PM
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Louisiana is seeing fewer people getting tested for COVID-19 even as the pandemic continues, and public health experts say that could affect the monitoring of how and where the original virus and its mutations are spreading.
Kim Hood, JD, MPH, is the Louisiana Department of Health’s Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public Health.
“Testing is really down not just in the state of Louisiana but down nationally and certainly we have seen that in many areas of the state,” said Hood. “But we haven’t seen any information that would indicate that it’s necessarily because of increased availability of the vaccine. I think we really are sort of focusing in on recent holidays, the ice storm, that kind of un-Louisiana-like winter weath