public health

Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson received one of the first shipments of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine in Louisiana on Monday. And on Tuesday, LCMC Health’s University Medical Center (UMC) in New Orleans received a shipment and began immunizing employees at highest risk for contracting the virus.

At 1 p.m. Friday, a short line of people rounded the corner of busy Canal Street and shady North Clark Street in front of First Grace United Methodist Church to get their free flu vaccines. The New Orleans Health Department had organized another of its mass vaccination exercises to prepare for COVID-19 immunization efforts.

For weeks New Orleans Director of Health Dr. Jennifer Avegno has warned that if the city’s percent positivity rate goes above 5 percent, it would trigger renewed state-enforced restrictions. We have reached that rate.

On the heels of the United Kingdom approving the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the United States is anticipating doing the same — and Louisiana officials are preparing for distribution.