UPDATED: Governor imposes mask requirement, orders most bars closed

Staff Report
Face covering in public became mandatory, bars were closed and many gatherings were limited to 50 people Monday, when new proclamations by Gov. John Bel Edwards took effect with the hope of slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Edwards announced the new restrictions at a Saturday press conference in response to the recent surge in COVID cases. Saturday was the second straight day that Louisiana reported at least 2,000 new COVID-19 positives.
Hospitalizations for COVID treatment jumped by 130 in just two days.
All that occurs against a backdrop of increased COVID presence across the Sun Belt. Hospitals are nearing capacity in Houston, 26 Mississippi legislators have tested positive and Florida reported more than 15,000 new COVID cases in a single day.
“We have no reason to believe that the numbers we’ve been seeing in the past few weeks will get any better,” Edwards said. “It’s likely to get worse.”
Reaction on social media ranged from relief that a mask mandate is finally in place to outrage over what posters feel is an unconstitutional overreach by the governor.
Morgan City Police Chief James F. Blair said on Facebook that the department’s officers will continue to wear masks and urge residents to wear them, too. But “the Morgan City Police Department does not take the position of enforcing mandates through the issuance of citations or other means. Those decisions, choices and consequences are the burden of the individual.”
That’s in keeping with the language in the governor’s proclamation. Only businesses and organizations — but not churches — that fail to enforce the requirement are subject to citation, the proclamation says. Those businesses and organizations are free to decide whether to accept a customer’s word that he or she is exempt from the mask requirement. If customers don’t comply with the rules, the proclamation said, businesses are free to contact authorities with a trespassing complaint.
The new requirements are:
—People 8 and over in a public space, indoor or outdoor, where they’re likely to come into contact with people outside their immediate household, must wear face covering.
There are exemptions for people with health conditions that make wearing a mask difficult; people who won’t come into contact with others or will be able to maintain social distancing of 6 feet; people who are eating or drinking; people making speeches or speaking for broadcast; people who are speaking to someone who is hard of hearing; or people removing a mask temporarily for identification.
Grant, Red River and West Feliciana parishes may opt out of the mask requirement because they’ve had fewer than 100 COVID infections per 100,000 people in the past two weeks. Other parishes that meet that standard later may also opt out.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance encourages the use of masks, saying they can prevent the wearer from spreading the disease.
—Bars must close, whether or not they have food permits. Bars can continue to offer drinks to go. Bars have been identified as a major source of COVID-19 outbreaks in Louisiana.
—Crowds in many indoor spaces and outdoor spaces where social distancing can’t be maintained are limited to 50 people. The limit doesn’t apply to businesses deemed essential and businesses and churches already observing 50% capacity limits.
Edwards said Louisiana will remain in Phase Two of the Trump administration’s reopening guidelines until at least July 24.
Dr. Joseph Kanter, assistant state health officer, told reporters Saturday that between June 22 and July 5, 15.3% of Louisiana COVID tests were positive. Federal guidance says that to slow the spread of COVID, the positivity rate should be below 10%.
“That’s a highly concerning number,” Kanter said. “A lot of those people who tested positive are asymptomatic.”
People who are infected but aren’t showing symptoms can spread the disease without knowing it.
“At the end of the day, this is about the preservation of human life,” Kanter said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Reporters also heard an impassioned plea for compliance from Dr. Catherine O’Neal of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, one of three U.S. cities singled out by federal authorities for surge testing in response to COVID hot spots.
Hospitals were prepared for more cases when the state began easing restrictions, O’Neal said. But they weren’t prepared to see the numbers that developed beginning in mid-June.
The Louisiana Office of Public Health numbers indicate that hospitalizations for COVID has more than doubled to 1,243 in a month.
“And now we are overwhelmed,” O’Neal said. “We have too many people in the hospitals. Our hospitals are full.
“When our hospitals get full, just like we talked about before, it is incredibly hard to provide for everybody.”
O’Neal said that in one recent case, a patient had to put off cancer surgery in February, March and April. By the time surgery was available, the cancer had advanced too far to treat.
“We can’t allow this in the community anymore,” O’Neal said. “We have to be better stewards so that the whole community is healthier from all of their illnesses, and not just COVID-19. But to do that we have to do things like masking, and we all have to wear a mask.”