BATON ROUGE, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – With more than 29,000 new COVID-19 cases reported over the long holiday weekend, Louisiana has passed the one-million mark in reported COVID-19 infections since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Louisiana Department of Health reported 29,125 new cases Tuesday since January 14, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,025,748.

“Today, Louisiana reaches another sobering milestone, with our state officially reporting more than one million cases of COVID since the start of the pandemic in 2020,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement released to media shortly after the data was updated on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard. “And, we know that because cases are underreported, in reality many more people in Louisiana have had COVID at some point in the past 22 months. And, while we are looking for early signs that this current Omicron surge is letting up, we still have far too many sick people in our state and far too many people in our hospitals with COVID. Most tragically, 15,195 Louisianans have died of this illness, which we know is now largely preventable.”

According to the Louisiana Department of Health, there are 2,183 COVID-19 patients in the hospital with 142 on ventilators.

“While thankfully Omicron is on average less likely to put you in the hospital than other variants, that is just an average,” State Health Officer Dr. Joseph Kanter said. “While thankfully Omicron is on average less likely to put you in the hospital than other variants, that is just an average. It is still possible to get very sick from COVID-19 as the large number of people currently hospitalized in Louisiana show us. The best possible protection against being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19 is getting vaccinated and boosted as soon as you are eligible.”

Since the start of the pandemic, the state has also reported a total of 15,195 COVID-19 related fatalities.