BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's chief medical officer Dr. Joseph Kanter is stepping down, the Louisiana Department of Health said Monday. 

Dr. Kanter has been the state health officer since the fall of 2020 when Dr. Alex Billioux resigned. He served as an interim in the position until the beginning of 2021 when he was officially on the job. Dr. Kanter led Louisianans through the COVID pandemic and was in one of the first groups to be vaccinated in the state. 

The LDH said Dr. Pete Croughan, the current deputy secretary, is serving as interim state health officer.