Governor: Three more weeks of Phase Two

Louisiana will stay in Phase Two of coronavirus mitigation measures for at least three weeks after the current proclamation expires Friday, Gov. John Bel Edwards said at his Tuesday press conference.

Edwards said recent statistics have been encouraging. According to Dr. Alex Billioux of the Louisiana Department of Health, the number of people appearing at Louisiana hospitals with COVID-like symptoms and the number of new COVID-19 test positives have been trending downward over the last week, and the number of people in hospitals for COVID treatment shows signs of reaching a plateau.

The improvements began soon after the most recent Edwards order mandating face-coverings in public, closing bars and limiting crowds to no more than 50 people.

"if we look at those trends in relation to when the mandates were put in place," Billioux said, "you see there's a pretty good correlation between the drop in symptoms, cases continue to come down and hospitalizations coming down just about two weeks after the mask mandate."

Even so, Edwards said, "the numbers, quite frankly, while they have improved, the improvements have been relatively modest."

Edwards will sign an order extending the Phase Two restrictions on Thursday.

The mask mandate, bar closures and crowd size limits were put in place last month after cases and hospitalizations began to move sharply upward again in mid-June.