Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a news conference on Thursday the state added 4,200 Covid-19 cases in seven days.
“Since June 10, we’ve added more than 4,200 new Covid-19 cases across the state, that is in seven days,” he said. “Most of these new cases did not come from nursing homes or other congregate settings. And what that means is they were the result of community spread.”
The governor said he wanted to share this information as there is a lot of talk in the state and nationally about a second wave in the fall.
“Today, we didn’t know we’re still very much in the first wave. Coronavirus hasn’t left. It is still very much here with us, and it is present in every community across the state of Louisiana,” he said.
Asked if he thought about making masks mandatory as some other states have, Edwards said, “I am not going to tell you that we haven’t thought about it. But at the end of the day, those states that went there quickly reversed course. It is just not something that you can enforce. And I think you end up doing more harm than good by trying to make it mandatory.”
“We’re just going to continue to appeal to people, and hopefully, they will understand. Nobody wants to go backward and start imposing more restrictions, and we shouldn’t need to do that,” he added.
Here are the numbers: There are at least 48,634 cases of Covid-19 in the state, and at least 2,950 people have died.