Watch live: Gov. John Bel Edwards gives an update on Louisiana's response to COVID-19 and omicron variant
The Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, is holding a media briefing Thursday to give an update on Louisiana's response to the omicron variant of COVID-19.
You watch the press conference here:
The first known case of the omicron variant was detected in the U.S. in early December, in San Francisco, California.
Fueled by the omicron variant, the pace of newly reported COVID-19 in the United States is still rising. The country reported more than 5.5 million cases in the week ending Wednesday, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. Compared to a week before, 47 states had rising case counts, 38 states had rising death counts, and 49 states had more COVID-19 patients in hospital beds. The country now has more than 152,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, federal data shows, and about 25,200 people are in intensive-care beds.
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The omicron variant should create a wealth of immunity for at least the next year and annual COVID-19 shots will probably be needed for "some time," Bill Gates says.
"Once Omicron goes through a country then the rest of the year should see far fewer cases so COVID can be treated more like seasonal flu," Gates tweeted during a Twitter QandA with Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, earlier this week.
Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said a "more transmissive variant" than omicron is not likely to emerge. But he acknowledged that COVID-19 has provided numerous surprises during the pandemic.
Gabe Hauari is a digital producer for the USA Today Network. You can follow him on Twitter @GabeHauari.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Watch live: Gov. Bel Edwards gives an update on Louisiana's COVID-19 response
