NEW ORLEANS — Memorial Day weekend saw large gatherings on the beach along the Gulf Coast.
Two weeks later, Mississippi is now reporting its largest number of new Coronavirus cases since counting began in March.
“I’m not alarmed,” Biloxi Mayor “FoFo” Gilich said. “We’re going to watch over the next 5 days to see a trend.”
Gilich doesn’t know if a data dump of old test results or increased testing led to the nearly 500 new COVID cases in his state on Monday. He’s not ready to blame the numbers on the reopening of the economy or the crowds on his beaches.
“If it trends more up over the reopening of everything, churches as well as the beaches and other gatherings, that’s room for concern,” Gilich said.
Texas also reported a record-breaking number of virus-related hospitalizations.
Louisiana Deputy State Health Officer Dr. Joseph Kantor said it’s too early to tell what caused the spikes in our neighboring states.
“There’s one line of thought that we are at a different place in our curve than these other states are.,” Kanter said. “We had a higher peak, a much more pronounced peak than some of these other states have had.”
Kanter admits there is some risk of infection when segments of the economy reopen and social distancing restrictions are loosened.
“There is risk involved in the reopening process,” Kanter said. “Anybody who says different is lying to you. There is risk out there and there is a real role for personal responsibility.”
An analysis by our partners at the Times Picayune – New Orleans Advocate showed only a slight uptick in cases in Louisiana between May 29 and June 4 compared to the previous week.
Dr. Kanter said an increase in COVID cases alone doesn’t tell the whole story.
“We’re not seeing concurrent increases in hospitalizations and COVID like-illness, but we’ll know more and be able to say more definitely in the next couple of days,” Kanter said.
Dr. Kanter doesn’t expect COVID numbers in Louisiana to go up because of what’s happening in Texas and Mississippi. He maintains there is still plenty of risk on this side of the state line.
“If you subtract recovered cases from the total cases and fatalities, that leaves about 7,000 or so active cases, active and infectious cases of COVID remaining in Louisiana right now,” Kanter said.