LA COVID VACCINES & TRACING APP — Although President Joe Biden’s Administration has said it plans to increase the number of Americans to receive a coronavirus vaccine in the next 100 days, Louisiana health officials say the vaccine shipments to Louisiana won’t be increased from its current allocation which is about 58,000 doses a week. Dr. during a Covid-19 update last Friday, Dr. Joseph Kanter with Louisiana’s Department of Health explained how this will affect administering the vaccine statewide.
"What we've been told by Operation Warp Speed is to expect similar allocations for at least the next four to five weeks," Kanter said. "Unfortunately that means that we can't do the very large-scale events that we've been prepping for for so long."
The Centers for Disease control reports that Louisiana ranks 10th in the nation for administering vaccines per 100,000 persons. Also announced on Friday was a new section added to the LDH’s Coronavirus Dashboard that updates the number of persons who received vaccinations in the state and offers a demographic breakdown as well. It will be updated twice weekly. Kanter also explained the LDH has released a voluntary / anonymous contact tracing application for mobile phones that lets people know if they’ve been around someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
"And this is the exposure notification exposure program that in an anonymous, confidential way will push a notice to users if they come into close contact with somebody else who is participating in the program and is identified as a positive case of covid" Kanter explained.
Kanter said no personal information is shared with the LDH and is completely confidential. The Covid-Defense tracing app is available for free download from the Google App Store.
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