NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans’ Department of Sanitation announced Monday that it’s postponing its planned restart of curbside recycling due to staffing issues caused by COVID-19.
The sanitation department said that the disease has “severely impacted solid waste collections” in the city, with more than 30 percent of drivers unable to work, which has caused delays to waste pickup over the New Year’s holiday.
“In light of these severe resource constraints and to ensure that crews can catch up, curbside recycling has been delayed one week and will resume on Monday, Jan. 10,” a statement from the city’s government said.
The New Orleans mayor’s office said that solid waste collections fell behind on Thursday, Dec. 30 for service areas one and two, causing contractor crews to work to catch up over the weekend.
“Crews have been focused on completing missed collections this morning and are preparing to transition to Monday’s scheduled routes,” the mayor’s office said. “Crews anticipate being back on schedule by the middle of this week.”
The Louisiana Department of Health reported more than 31,000 new cases of COVID-19 over the New Year’s holiday, as the Omicron variant continues to surge throughout the state. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state have also drastically increased over that time period.
On Sunday there were 1,106 people hospitalized with the virus in Louisiana. Before the Omicron variant surged through the state in mid-December, Louisiana was reporting a pandemic low of about 200 COVID-19 hospitalizations.
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