Vermilion Parish remains hot spot for COVID-19

On the outside, things look to be getting back to normal dealing with the coronavirus. For the most part, they are, but for some reason, Vermilion Parish is now a coronavirus hot spot.
Over the last three weeks, four people have died at Abbeville General from COVID-19.
One as recent as May 21, a 39-year-old, who died in the emergency room at the hospital.
Abbeville General released information showing that Vermilion Parish is one of four parishes in the state with the highest percentage of positivity rate.
The parish, unfortunately, is number one in the Acadiana region at 7.8 percent.
The state’s average is 3.3 percent and the rest of the Acadiana region is 4.6 percent positivity.
Vermilion Parish now has 5,562 residents who have had COVID over the last year, and 122 died due to COVID. This week there were at least 15 new COVID cases and one new death.
“Compared to rates of infection in late April, the number of new cases has doubled in Vermilion Parish,” said Dr. Tina Stefanksi, the Region 4 Medical Director. “With Vermilion Parish having the lowest vaccination rate in the Acadiana Region, we need to do everything we can to answer questions people have about the safe and effective vaccines that are available to protect our communities from COVID-19. The vaccines are absolutely the way we can put an end to this pandemic and prevent people in our communities from sickness and hospitalization, and from spreading the virus to their loved ones.”
Over the last year, the hospital has had 125 COVID-19 patients discharged from Abbeville General, after battling COVID. Out of those discharged who went into Abbeville General with COVID, 66 percent were 61 years old and older. No one was younger than 19 years old.
According to the White House, the U.S. hit a milestone in its vaccination push last week, with over 50 percent of adults now fully vaccinated. But as the overall count of vaccinated Americans ticks higher, Louisiana’s vaccination rate has slowed.
Louisiana — along with neighbors Mississippi and Alabama — is part of a swath of southern states where low vaccination rates have troubled public health experts. Eight of the bottom 10 states are in the South, where the percentage of people with at least one dose is at or below 40%. Mississippi is last, Louisiana is second-to-last and is followed by Alabama, Wyoming, Idaho, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, West Virginia and South Carolina.
According to the Louisiana Department of Health, there are 60,000 people in Vermilion Parish. Only 20 percent of the parish or 12,000 people have received two doses of the vaccine.
At only 20 percent, Vermilion Parish is the lowest vaccinated parish in the Acadiana Region. The Acadiana Region averages a 25 percent vaccination rate.
Abbeville General has vaccinated 5,734 residents.
“We will continue to have senseless preventable COVID deaths until people get their vaccine,” said Michelle Glatter, who is the Infection Control Preventionist for Abbeville General.
Abbeville General, Abbeville General rural clinics, and the health unit in Abbeville provide the COVID vaccines.
“The vaccines are a critical tool in protecting yourself and those around, ultimately ending the pandemic and getting our lives back to normal,” said Glatter. Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson COVID vaccines are safe and effective vaccines. The research daily supports how well these vaccines are performing in preventing COVID infections, hospitalizations and death.”