UPDATED: MCHS-South Lafourche football game canceled due to COVID-19 cases at South Lafourche

Staff Report
Morgan City High School’s football game against South Lafourche, scheduled for Friday night, has been canceled because COVID-19 cases at South Lafourche High School, Morgan City High School officials said Thursday evening.
Morgan City High School coach Chris Stroud said he was informed Thursday night by South Lafourche of the cancellation of the District 8-4A game, which also was scheduled to be Morgan City’s homecoming.
Meanwhile, Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday said Louisiana will remain in Phase 3 of coronavirus restrictions for at least another month, defying a petition put together by Republican lawmakers.
According to the Houma Courier, South Lafourche has “multiple confirmed coronavirus cases” on its campus and will be completing online learning, beginning Friday until Nov. 30 when the school returns from the Thanksgiving break.
As for homecoming, the court will be introduced at the school’s Ogden E. “Oggie” Stansbury Multi-Purpose Building Saturday in a 7 p.m. ceremony and the queen crowned.
Before Friday’s game, the school also planned to retire the jerseys of four former Morgan City High School Tigers: Urban Henry, No. 89; Charles Poole, No. 33; Edward Dangerfield, No. 2; and Herman Hartman Jr., No. 4.
That ceremony will be held at 8 p.m. following the homecoming court ceremony.
Also, those who purchased tickets for the game may come to school as early as Monday for a refund or the tickets may be used for the Tigers’ next home game on Nov. 13 against South Terrebonne.
Morgan City is currently 0-5 this season and 0-2 in district, while South Lafourche is 2-3 overall and 1-1 in district play.
Phase 3 extended
Louisiana will stay in Phase 3 and keep its current COVID-19 mitigation measures in place for another 28 days, Edwards said Thursday. The Governor’s Phase 3 order was set to expire Friday, and he has extended it until Dec. 4.
“The mitigation measures we have in place are slowing the spread of COVID and saving lives and now is not the time to let up,” Edwards said. “All Louisianans need to continue to work together to slow the spread of COVID in our state and keep hospitalizations down so that we do not risk our ability to deliver health care to our people.
“We have now seen three consecutive days of increasing hospitalizations, and last saw this many people in the hospital in mid-September. As we move into the holiday season, it is important that people do not let their guard down. We have seen COVID spread because of small, private gatherings at people’s homes and everyone should be focused on minimizing their risk and protecting their loved ones.”
The White House Coronavirus Task Force shares data weekly with the states, which shows that while much of the nation is seeing a surge in new cases, Louisiana’s new case count and test positivity has remained mostly stable. Louisiana has the 44th highest number of new cases per capita, with the lowest test positivity and new cases per capita in the South.
Nine new COVID-19 cases were reported at midday Thursday in Assumption and St. Martin parishes. No new fatalities were reported locally.
St. Mary’s case count was adjusted downward by one to 2,047.
Assumption has six new cases for a pandemic total of 822.
St. Martin has three new cases for a total of 2,276.
The death tolls remain at 87 in St. Mary, 64 in St. Martin and 24 in Assumption.