Another 100 COVID cases Tuesday in St. Mary

Another 100 COVID-19 cases were reported in St. Mary Parish for the 24 hours ending at midday Tuesday.
Those cases, reported by the Louisiana Office of Public Health, raise the pandemic total here to 6,911.
No deaths were reported Tuesday, leaving the pandemic toll at 155.
Statewide, 6,088 new cases were reported Tuesday along with 93 deaths.
The number of COVID patients in Louisiana hospitals rose by 139 to 2,859.

Ochsner
Ochsner Health, which operates Ochsner St. Mary in Morgan City, now has 1,008 COVID-19 patients in its hospitals in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to the company’s Facebook page.
“On Aug. 1, we had 787 patients, a 28% increase in one week,” Ochsner said.
The average age for hospitalized COVID patients at Ochsner is 55 for adults and 6 years old for pediatric patients.
Ochsner urged people to get COVID vaccinations. You can find a community vaccine event near you: ochsner.org/vaccineinfo

School
Dr. Teresa Bagwell, superintendent of St. Mary schools, responded to a Facebook comment that said a whole class at an unnamed parish school had been quarantined.
“There are students in quarantine at different schools across the district but there is no entire class in quarantine at any of our schools right now,” Bagwell wrote in an email. “Some of the students who may have been positive cases before school started have not attended school as yet as they are in quarantine.
“We have a systematic approach once we are informed of a positive case (student, teacher, or staff member) to identify anyone considered as a ‘close contact’ and then inform the Office of Public Health for guidance on quarantining the right individuals.
“Additionally, any time there is a positive case reported at any school, parents will receive a J-text message from the school as a courtesy message informing them of the case and we personally contact parents whose child is considered a ‘close contact’ and must test and possibly have to quarantine depending on vaccination status or result of the testing.”

Children
Dr. Mark Kline of Children’s Hospital in New Orleans continues to warn parents about the spread of COVID among young people.
Kline told WDSU in New Orleans that the percentage of tests returning positive results for the hospital’s pediatric outpatients grew from 1% last month to 7% two weeks ago to 20% Monday.
A quarter of children diagnosed with COVID-19 at the hospital have been admitted to the intensive care unit. One is 7 months old.
“It is heartbreaking honestly to take care of potentially dying children,” Kline told WDSU. “All of this was likely unnecessary if we as adults did what we needed to do and get the vaccine. We could have protected these children.”

Mike the Tiger
LSU mascot Mike VII, a real-life tiger, got his second COVID-19 vaccine shot Monday, the university reported.
The vaccination was more than a publicity stunt in a state where the vaccination rate is below 50%. The virus that causes COVID-19 showed up last year in the big cats at the Bronx Zoo, the university said.