NEW ORLEANS — Tuesday marks a grim milestone that most in Louisiana would barely have been able to believe 365 days ago: it has been exactly one year since the first case of COVID-19 in Louisiana was confirmed in New Orleans.
In the year since the state has undergone lockdowns of various intensity, hundreds of thousands of employees have remotely logged in to their offices from home and nearly 10,000 Louisianans have died from the virus.
In the early days of the pandemic, New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole showed worrying signs, matching New York for the highest number of cases per 100,000 people.
But as more pandemic restrictions began taking effect both locally and across the country, Louisiana's coronavirus case numbers began to fluctuate.
Dr. Jennifer Avegno, New Orleans' Health Department director, began speaking at press conferences giving updates on the city's latest numbers. The Louisiana Department of Health began updating a dashboard with daily updates on new cases and deaths associated with the virus.
WWL-TV began tracking coronavirus data, giving a clearer look at where we stood against the virus.
Businesses and restaurants largely shut down to in-person customers and began a cautious tiptoe towards reopening.
Mardi Gras as we know it was canceled, replaced with reversed, drive-by parades, and house floats.
A vaccine was developed in record time. Then another. And now a third.
More than 430,000 people in Louisiana contracted the virus, with hundreds hospitalized. Around 415,000 of those Covid patients have recovered from the illness, according to state estimates.
To honor the pandemic, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell will provide a citywide update at 11 a.m. before honoring the pandemic's victims in New Orleans at noon.
Also at noon, Gov. John Bel Edwards will give an update on the state's response to COVID-19, where he is expected to announce a major expansion of the eligibility requirements for the Covid vaccine in Louisiana.
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