A baby under the age of one has died of COVID-19 in Louisiana.
This is the first time in six months that the state has recorded a pediatric death from the virus and the 11th in general since the pandemic began.
The reported death comes a day after Bayou State reported a record 139 deaths on Tuesday.
Louisiana, like many other states, has experienced an increase in cases of COVID-19 fueled by the Indian variant of the Delta.
Details about the baby are currently unknown, including name, age, sex, hometown and where he died.
A baby under the age of one died Wednesday in Louisiana, the first pediatric death from COVID-19 in six months. Pictured: Stamford Elementary School teacher Luciana Lira, 42, has Neysel, who was two weeks old, to show her mother Zully, a Guatemalan asylum seeker, and her son Junior , 7, through Zoom in Connecticut, April 2020
Louisiana has experienced its largest increase in cases since the pandemic began this summer. On August 13, the new daily average of cases reached 5,839, a new record. The state also recorded a record 361 deaths on Tuesday
The baby is among the 361 Louisians who died last week, the highest the state has recorded in a seven-day period since the first wave of the pandemic.
Deaths in the state have risen 55% in the past two weeks, from an average of 38 a day on August 10 to 59 a day on August 24.
Louisiana spent much of the spring and early summer averaging single-digit deaths, with the recent rise proving to be a setback in the state’s efforts to end the pandemic.
New cases are beginning to slow in the state after reaching their peak two weeks ago.
After breaking the record of 5,839 new cases on August 13, Louisiana has been reporting an average of 4,683 new infections, a 20% decrease in 11 days.
Deaths usually lag behind cases for about two weeks, so it is normal for a record death count to be set after a record case count.
The recent outbreak has caused hospitals to fill up and left many doctors working and traumatized by the number of deaths occurring in the state.
Melinda Hunt, a registered nurse at Willis-Knighton Medical Center in Shreveport, works six or seven days a week and wakes up before dawn.
Her eyes filled with tears as she drove to work on a rainy morning next to an Associated Press reporter.
Hunt, 24, decided to become a nurse when she was 6 years old and saw compassionate and skilled professionals help her younger sister who had leukemia.
Hunt used to be optimistic and cheerful. But now she feels exhausted and exhausted.
Coworkers have noticed the change and sometimes ask him if he is okay or if he needs a break.
“I don’t think I can take a break because we no longer have nurses,” she said.
When Hunt arrives at the critical care unit for infectious diseases around 6:30 a.m., he sheds tears and exhaustion.
There are COVID-19 patients who need their honesty and compassion.
These patients ask me, “Am I going to die?” And I don’t want to tell anyone they’re going to die, ”Hunt said.
“But I won’t give them a false reassurance either.”
About 120 of the 138 patients currently in hospital with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, a statewide trend where the virus is marking unvaccinated pockets.
Louisiana is among the nine states in which less than half the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, with only 48%.
Only 40 percent of the state is completely vaccinated.
