Hard-Hit New Orleans Plans To Begin Relaxing Coronavirus Restrictions Saturday

TOPLINE

New Orleans, one of the U.S. cities worst impacted by the coronavirus, will begin easing restrictions on Saturday, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon, even as other hard-hit cities like New York and Detroit plan to remain closed for the foreseeable future.

KEY FACTS

KEY BACKGROUND

Cantrell issued a stay-at-home mandate for the city in mid-March. The rapid rise in cases in New Orleans gave Louisiana the fastest rate spread of coronavirus anywhere in the world as of March 24, Edwards said at a news conference. Orleans Parish, which is consolidated with the city of New Orleans, had the highest per capita death rate of any county in the U.S. — more than twice the next highest county.

 But by mid-April, the trend in New Orleans had turned to the extreme in the opposite direction, according to an analysis from The New York Times
NYT
. The city went from 9,343 new coronavirus cases over a two-week period to 3,936 during the following two-week period, with the decrease of 426 cases per 100,000 residents the fastest decrease among the nation’s metro areas.

City officials warned that if infections begin to rise again, more restrictive measures would have to go back into effect.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“We were disproportionately affected severely early on. We peaked fast. We peaked high,” said Dr. Jennifer Avegno, head of the New Orleans Health Department.

TANGENT

New Orleans’ rapid spike to become a coronavirus epicenter came just weeks after the city’s Mardi Gras celebrations, when an estimated 1.4 million revelers visited from around the world, packing into a city where the permanent population is under 400,000.

FURTHER READING

New Orleans Counted No New Coronavirus Deaths For The First Time In More Than A Month—But It Didn’t Last (Forbes)

Safe Reopening (City of New Orleans)

Louisiana to enter Phase I of coronavirus reopening, but ‘It’s not mission accomplished’ (The Advocate)

Louisiana governor says his state has the fastest growth rate of coronavirus cases in the world (CNN)

Orleans Parish has highest per-capita coronavirus death rate of American counties — by far (The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)

New Orleans is a center of coronavirus. Mardi Gras may be to blame, doctors say (NBC News)