RISE IN COVID-19 CASES - Louisiana Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards during his Covid-19 update yesterday announced he won't be lifting reopening restrictions that were expected to expire Friday, June 26th. The reasons he cited for holding back on further lifting reopening restrictions is because Louisiana has shown a spike in Covid-19 … surpassing more than 50,000 confirmed cases and 3,000 deaths. Edwards explained that Louisiana is among the top 15 states showing an increase in Covid-19 infections. He did share some frustration at the news as he felt the recent spikes in illness could’ve been prevented.
"The fact of the matter is with the mitigation measures that we've had in place it is also very clear to me that if we were doing a better job as a state collectively of adhering to those mitigation measures we would not be seeing the case growth we're seeing today," Edwards said.
Edwards was referring to the recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control such as wearing face masks, 6-foot distancing, and avoiding large social gatherings. Health officials have traced recent outbreaks to bar patrons at the area known as “Tigerland” near LSU in Baton Rouge and at a graduation party in New Orleans. Edwards did express concerns that younger people weren’t taking mitigation measures seriously and could be asymptomatic spreaders of the disease thinking they are at less risk.
"Especially when these young people interact with, go home to older people including their parents and their grandparents and so forth," explained Edwards. "And many of the people that come into contact with these young folks are in fact in the vulnerable population."
Edwards acknowledged that while more Covid-19 cases were expected due to increased testing, he did say that the results along with increasing hospitalizations show the illness trending upward thanks mostly to community spread. As for the possibility for Covid-19 to slow up with higher Summer temperatures, the governor said this wasn't happening.
"Some had hoped, thought, believed that this virus would sort of go away once we got to the summer, it is very clear that is not happening." Edwards said.
So for the next 28 days – the state of Louisiana will keep in place the current limitations on restaurants, bars and retailers enacted on June 5, which were set to expire Friday.
For more information click link: LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH COVID-19 WEBSITE
