NEW ORLEANS— With all the uncertainty surrounding omicron, local health officials are preparing as much as they can.

WGNO’s Kenny Lopez spoke with the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mark Kline at Children’s Hospital New Orleans about what precautions people can take now to stay safe from the potential dangers of the omicron variant.

“We have this omicron variant lurking, and how’s it going to turn out? Is it going to be more severe than what we’ve been dealing with or not,?” Dr. Kline said.

He said within the next ten days we should all know if omicron will be a real threat to us in Louisiana.

“We got a tremendous amount to learn about it. All of us could benefit from taking a few deep breaths and relaxing for the time being. We must let all the scientists put all the information they can together,” he said.

So while the scientists research the facts, he says the best thing to do is to not let our guard down.

“We need everyone who hasn’t been vaccinated to be vaccinated. Those adolescents and adults if it has been six months, then they need to get a booster shot,” Dr. Kline said.

He went on to say, “There’s no doubt that a vaccinated person will be far better off than someone who is completely unvaccinated. So no matter how this turns out vaccination is key.”

There are other precautions to take with omicron lurking.

“We still need to be very cautious particularly around people you don’t know if they are vaccinated or not. You need to be wearing a mask and big outdoor gatherings, I would encourage wearing a mask,” he said.

He understands how people are fed up, but COVID and its variants are still threats.

“A lot of us feel like we’ve had it, we are done, but the problem is the virus isn’t done with us,” Dr. Kline said.