Louisiana’s mask mandate is back.
As hospitals and health system statewide continue to wrestle with worst-in-the-nation COVID infection rates that have only worsened in recent days, Gov. John Bel Edwards on Monday signed an order reinstating a statewide mask mandate for all people 5 years old and older when they are indoors and in public.
The order goes into effect Wednesday (Aug. 4) and will remain in place until at least Sept. 1. It includes K-12 classrooms as well as college campuses.
Those people who are unable to wear a face covering for medical reasons are exempt from the order.
Gov. Edwards, who made his announcement surrounded by an assortment of healthcare and business leaders, said the decision to reinstate the mask mandate was influenced partly by recent CDC guidance saying that even fully vaccinated people can spread COVID and should thus wear a mask covering their nose and mouth while in public.
“We are the worst in the country in terms of this COVID surge, and that is because of the Delta variant, which is a game changer, and the fact that, quite frankly, not enough people have been vaccinated here in Louisiana,” Edwards said.
The state, he added, has the highest case growth per capita in the nation. Statewide, 1,984 people were hospitalized for COVID on Monday. Of those, 94 were at St. Tammany Health System’s Covington hospital, the most since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.
To-date, 11,026 people in Louisiana have died from COVID.
“It is heartbreaking because, as you’ve heard me say many times – and you all know this – those are not just numbers,” Gov. Edwards said. “These are our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles. These are fellow Louisianians who are no longer with us, and that is heartbreaking.”
Increasingly, he said, they are also children, with younger people making up a growing segment of hospitalized COVID patients – including many who are 11 and younger, meaning they are too young to receive a vaccine.
“Our current recommendations on their own are not strong enough to deal with Louisiana’s fourth surge of COVID. In fact, nobody should be laboring under the misapprehension this is just another surge. We’ve already had three of these. This is the worst one thus far.”
Speaking of the mask mandate, he continued: “This is obviously not something that I wanted to do, but Louisiana is not in the place where we want it to be or need it to be. Public health and safety compel this action.”