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The month of February saw a huge decline in COVID-19 cases in St. John Parish, with a total of 237 compared to a whopping number of 2,230 cases in January. The first half of March continues to show a dramatic decline in new cases, with only 18 cases recorded in the first 15 days of the month. There were 4 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in February, with 3 deaths so for in March.

The above numbers tell us that we are now in a current “slow phase” of  COVID-19, after the huge Omicron variant surge in January and early February. How long this quiet period will last is anyone’s guess. Things are relatively quiet across the entire country right now

The rate of vaccinations has slowed down to a crawl in the past several weeks, which mirrors the decline in new COVID cases. Our current vaccination rate in St. John is 59%, which means that 59% of our population has received two doses of vaccine. Only 22% of those have received a third booster vaccine dose. This compares with a state vaccination rate of 53% and a country-wide vaccination rate of 65%.

Our parish has also logged a total of 10,483 COVID-19 infections since the official start of the pandemic on March 9, 2021. This represents nearly 25% of our parish population. For comparison, the numbers for our country are nearly 25%, while the percentage of La. residents who have contracted COVID is slightly over 20%.

We need to stay vigilant as we never know when the next new strain of COVID-19 may appear.