Governor Edwards extends the current Modified Phase Two restrictions for at least another three weeks citing the state’s high number of COVID hospitalizations and new case counts.
Edwards says we’re starting to see plateauing rates of reported COVID-like illness across all medical regions and declining test positivity rates, but despite that progress, we will remain in the “status quo.”
For the first time in over a month, the state’s overall percent positivity rate is under 10 percent, sitting at 9.3 percent.
Edwards says we are flattening the curve but unfortunately the curve has flattened out at a dangerously high level and it’s likely we will experience a post-holiday surge.
“If we insist, and I hope we don’t as a state, but if we insist on traveling and having those holiday-related gatherings and activities then we obviously are going to be in more trouble,” said Edwards.
1,647 COVID patients are in the hospital right now, the highest number since April.
So restaurants will remain capped at 50 percent capacity, indoor gatherings limited, and most bars will remain shut, but Edwards says there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“And it is coming to us by way of vaccinations, but it really is not here yet,” said Edwards who reiterated that the general public likely won’t have access to the vaccine until late spring.
Churches and schools will still be allowed to operate under Phase Three restrictions. The proclamation went into effect today.
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