Governor will make announcement Wednesday about coronavirus restrictions

Gov. John Bel Edwards will announce Wednesday what happens when his proclamations on coronavirus restrictions expire Friday.

And at a Tuesday evening press conference, Edwards sounded doubtful about moving Louisiana beyond Phase 2. Hurricane Laura and the reopening of schools this month contribute to his reluctance.

Phase 2 includes capacity limits and social distancing requirements at businesses. On July 11, responding to a sharp upswing in COVID-19 positives and hospitalizations that started in June, the governor added a statewide mask mandate, the closure of bars for on-premises drinking and a renewed crowd size limit of 50 to the Phase 2 restrictions.

The number of new COVID-19 positives reported each day has since declined along with the pressure on hospital capacity.

But on Tuesday, Edwards said the number of positives compared to the size of the population remains above federal public health targets statewide, and about half of Louisiana parishes have positive test rates above the guidelines.

Laura complicates mitigation efforts because Louisiana Department of Health Region 5, where coronavirus rates are among the state's highest, includes Calcasieu and Cameron. Mandatory hurricane evacuations from those parishes are scattering residents to other locations.

At the same time, the threat from Laura and Hurricane Marco has interrupted widespread testing, Edwards said.

This week's testing would been valuable in determining whether the reopening of some K-12 schools led to an increase in coronavirus cases. K-12 and college students make up about 25% of the state's population, Edwards said, and they haven't been together in large numbers since schools closed in March.

"We're not going to have the testing to show us what happened when our schools went back into session a couple of weeks ago," Edwards said.

At least two groups of bar owners have sued over the bar closures, alleging that Edwards exceeded his authority and hurt their businesses based on thin evidence.

At a St. Mary luncheon earlier this month, Louisiana Association of Business and Industry President Stephen Waguespack criticized what he called "shutdown culture" in which restrictions are imposed every few weeks in response to fluctuations in coronavirus statistics. Without a new round of federal aid, Waguespack said, many small businesses will be in danger of closing for good.