Governor Edwards officially extends Phase Two guidelines for another two weeks, citing the state’s still high case count and potential super spreading events that could occur due to Hurricane Laura.
Edwards says they’re having to discontinue most community testing this week due to Laura, and the timing couldn’t have been worse.
“Because it is two to three weeks since we resumed K-12 education, and this is when you would want to be looking really, really hard to see those first signs of whether we are going to have increased cases or increased positivity,” says Edwards.
Edwards says between the resumption of K-12 education and the start of college classes more than a million Louisianans, whether students or staff, have been reintroduced to the education process.
Mass evacuations out of southwest Louisiana also have Edwards concerned. Hundreds of thousands are leaving for other parts of the state, and he notes the region has the highest positivity in Louisiana. Edwards is also worried about how search and rescue efforts could lead to super spreading events.
“I can only imagine that there will be hundreds if not thousands of more individuals who because they are going to have to be rescued we are going to have to put in shelters,” says Edwards.
Edwards says the White House still has Louisiana in the red zone for new cases, and Dr. Deborah Birx noted Louisiana still has more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents, and half of the state’s parishes have a higher than 10 percent positivity rate.
The Governor says the next two week period includes Labor Day, and that past holidays have resulted in new surges in cases.
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