| By Chad Calder | Staff writer
COVID HANGOVER: Louisiana racked up 24,433 new COVID-19 cases over the holiday weekend — an average of 6,108 per day over the four-day period — as the omicron variant worked its way through groups gathering to celebrate Christmas and ring in the new year. Omicron does not appear to cause illness as severe as previous variants, but its highly-contagious nature has it once again taxing exhausted doctors and nurses. Once again, most of those ending up in the hospital are unvaccinated. What's more, the timing of this surge suggests more children, many of whom are returning from holiday break and headed back to school, are likely to get sick this time around.
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING CITY: New Orleans has more than 100,000 fewer residents than it had before Hurricane Katrina, and despite the bounce-back growth during the 10 years that followed the storm, the city has been shrinking since the middle of the last decade. It's a trend that has cut deeply into the city's Black majority.
THE WAY FORWARD: Wondering what needs to happen for the Saints to make the playoffs? The path forward is actually quite simple. We've got you covered here.
Hope you enjoyed the Front Page. Thanks for joining us today. CC | 
