West Feliciana leads La. in percentage vaccinated

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - West Feliciana Parish leads the state of Louisiana by far when it comes to vaccination percentages by parish.

More than half of the parish has gotten at least one dose.

Before vaccine ever went out in Louisiana, West Feliciana Parish leaders were making plans.

“Back in November, Kenny (Havard) came to us, along with Sheriff Spillman, and said, ‘Let’s get a plan together,’ even though there was not a vaccine out there yet,” said Lee Chastant, West Feliciana Hospital CEO. “The other is we had a solid plan and the third piece is everybody worked together.”

With the help of physicians, law enforcement, school system officials, and more, the parish has managed to vaccinate more than 51% of people.

“We started [and] it was basically an age thing, then we worked our way down that,” added West Feliciana Parish President Kenny Havard. “And people that had, you know, pre-existing conditions. Our hospital and local doctors’ offices worked their way through that and we’ve made out way down to end up where we are.”

Take a look at some of these eye-opening numbers from the Louisiana Department of Health:

While West Feliciana leads the state in vaccine series initiated by parish, it is doing it by a lot, with nearly 10% more people starting a vaccine series than in Orleans or Jefferson Parish.

East Baton Rouge comes in sixth, with more than 33% getting at least one shot.

When you look at the fully vaccinated numbers, 40% of people in West Feliciana are fully protected there. Orleans is second in the state, with close to 30% of their population fully vaccinated.

Take a look below at the fully vaccinated rate in some of the parishes in our area.

East Baton Rouge Parish sits a little above 24% and St. Helena Parish just around 12%.

Havard is hoping his parish’s stellar numbers could convince the governor to maybe lift the mask mandate for them and ease more restrictions soon or at least to decide on easing restrictions on a parish-by-parish basis.

“We’re socially distanced just by nature up here, just by who we are, and where we’re at. So, I would hope that they’d give us some relief. At one time, we were given the opportunity to opt out of the mask mandate. If that came today, we probably would,” Havard explained.

But a spokesperson with the governor’s office said the state’s mask mandate isn’t going anywhere:

“The Governor’s statewide mask mandate remains in place for every parish. We’re thankful for everyone across Louisiana who is getting vaccinated, and we’re encouraged by the numbers, but we are not out of the woods yet. Variant cases continue to rise and many people are moving about. We’re at a critical point in this race between the vaccinations and the virus. As the Governor has said he is ready to stop wearing the masks like everyone else, but we need to continue wearing them for now. The sooner more people get vaccinated the sooner we can put this pandemic behind us.”

ONE-STOP-SHOP: Stats, links related to COVID-19

(Sorted by Percent Initiated Vaccine Series)

1.) West Feliciana - 51.02%

2.) Orleans - 41.44%

3.) Jefferson - 37.36%

4.) St. Tammany - 34.29%

5.) Tensas - 33.22%

6.) East Baton Rouge - 33.14%

7.) St. Charles - 32.28%

8.) St. John the Baptist - 32.12%

9.) Pointe Coupee - 32.04%

10.) Plaquemines - 32.01%

11.) St. James - 30.23%

12.) West Baton Rouge - 30.17%

13.) Iberville - 29.76%

14.) Bienville - 28.92%

15.) Ascension - 28.46%

16.) Lafayette - 27.96%

17.) Union - 27.35%

18.) Caddo - 27.31%

19.) Richland - 27.17%

20. Lincoln - 27.16%

21.) West Carroll - 27.08%

22.) St. Bernard - 26.71%

23. Rapides - 26.47%

24.) Morehouse - 25.97%

25.) Acadia - 25.94%

26.) Webster - 25.72%

27.) Ouachita - 25.69%

28.) Tangipahoa - 25.60%

29.) East Feliciana - 24.71%

30.) Natchitoches - 24.62%

31.) Lafourche - 24.42%

32.) East Carroll - 24.26%

33.) Terrebonne - 24.19%

34.) Bossier - 24.12%

35.) Washington - 24.01%

36.) St. Mary - 23.79%

37.) Iberia - 23.79%

38.) Claiborne - 23.63%

39.) De Soto - 23.54%

40.) Calcasieu - 23.41%

41.) Assumption - 23.35%

42.) Caldwell - 23.10%

43.) St. Landry - 22.92%

44.) Winn - 22.79%

45.) Jackson - 22.47%

46.) Franklin - 22.21%

47.) Avoyelles - 22.13%

48.) Catahoula - 21.37%

49.) Evangeline - 21.14%

50.) Livingston - 21.11%

51.) Red River - 21.06%

52.) St. Martin - 20.48%

53.) Sabine - 20.14%

54.) Madison - 20.01%

55.) Vermilion - 19.85%

56.) Jefferson Davis - 19.73%

57.) Beauregard - 18.43%

58.) Grant - 18.27%

59.) Concordia - 17.58%

60.) St. Helena - 16.95%

61.) La Salle - 16.81%

62.) Allen - 15.24%

63.) Vernon - 13.61%

64.) Cameron - 9.96%

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COVID-19 Vaccine, Testing Locations

(Sorted by Completed Vaccination Series)

1.) West Feliciana - 40.35%

2.) Orleans - 29.73%

3.) Jefferson - 26.51%

4.) St. Tammany - 25.96%

5.) Tensas - 25.16%

6.) East Baton Rouge - 24.39%

7.) Pointe Coupee - 24.20%

8.) Plaquemines - 23.79%

9.) St. Charles - 23.54%

10.) West Carroll - 22.93%

11.) St. John the Baptist - 21.65%

12.) West Baton Rouge - 21.43%

13.) Caddo - 21.43%

14.) Lafayette - 21.42%

15.) St. James - 21.33%

16.) Richland - 21.26%

17.) Lincoln - 20.94%

18.) Iberville - 20.89%

19.) Ascension - 20.78%

20.) Union - 20.65%

21.) Bienville - 20.63%

22.) East Carroll - 20.29%

23.) Rapides - 19.60%

24.) Morehouse - 19.51%

25.) Tangipahoa - 19.44%

26.) Webster - 18.91%

27.) Lafourche - 18.90%

28.) Ouachita - 18.87%

29.) Acadia - 18.85%

30.) Terrebonne - 18.72%

31.) Bossier - 18.58%

32.) Caldwell - 18.46%

33.) Washington - 18.35%

34.) Assumption - 18.25%

35.) St. Mary - 18.24%

36.) Winn - 18.21%

37.) East Feliciana - 17.98%

38.) Jackson - 17.95%

39.) De Soto - 17.64%

40.) St. Landry - 17.53%

41.) St. Bernard - 17.30%

42.) Natchitoches - 17.21%

43.) Franklin - 17.06%

44.) Iberia - 16.99%

45.) Calcasieu - 16.75%

46.) Claiborne - 16.39%

47.) Red River - 16.37%

48.) Catahoula - 16.06%

49.) Avoyelles - 15.85%

50.) Madison - 15.66%

51.) St. Martin - 15.24%

52.) Evangeline - 15.22%

53.) Livingston - 15.17%

54.) Vermilion - 14.47%

55.) Jefferson Davis - 14.43%

56.) La Salle - 13.79%

57.) Grant - 13.59%

58.) Sabine - 13.40%

59.) Concordia - 13.16%

60.) Beauregard - 12.53%

61.) St. Helena - 12.41%

62.) Allen - 10.82%

63.) Vernon - 8.26%

64.) Cameron - 7.47%

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