Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

November saw a spike in new COVID-19 infections in St. John Parish, with 329 cases being recorded in the month, compared to 67 cases in October and 73 cases in September. However, our parish only had 2 deaths due to COVID-19, compared to 7 in October and 5 in September.

 

 

The large spike in cases in St. John Parish follows the trend of increased cases in Louisiana and the rest of the country during the month of November. Medical experts are attributing the new spike to cooler weather which allows the virus to survive longer in the environment and thus be more widespread for transmission and spread. Also, new medical research has now shown that individuals who test positive for COVID-19 are contagious 3-4 days prior to their symptoms, and thus are not fully aware of their contagiousness prior to becoming ill. This is thought to be a big factor in the continuing spread of the virus.

 

 

Face masks continue to be effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and reducing the viral load which gets into the body. A recent study showed that N-95 mask can reduce the viral load by 95%, surgical masks by 45%, cloth masks by

30%, and bandanas by only 10%. Thus it is important to obtain a good quality mask to get the best result in reducing your virus exposure. Let’s keep our guard up with masks and social distancing and be extremely careful with gatherings for upcoming holiday events.