(La Porte County, IN) - Despite record-breaking COVID-19 case numbers, a La Porte County medical physician sees no need for a lockdown.

Dr. Vidya Kora, a medical practitioner in Michigan City, said hospitalizations are holding steady because the Omicron variant produces less severe symptoms in most cases, and medications that help patients recover are readily available to doctors now.

“I don’t think we need to be in lockdown. I think we need to learn to live with this,” he said.

Kora said the best way for people to continue living their lives is getting vaccinated and boosted and following the necessary precautions like wearing masks and practicing social distancing whenever necessary. According to Kora, about 25 people were hospitalized today at Franciscan Health, about the same number of patients two weeks ago. However, he also said a vast majority of people in the hospital are not vaccinated.

The previous record of 144 new daily cases in La Porte County from December 2020 was not broken until over a week ago when 146 new daily cases were reported.

The current record now stands at 330 new daily cases reported on Monday.