Governor Edwards Drops Most, But Not All, Of The Mask Mandate

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The State of Louisiana reported just 282 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, and only has 323 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19. In the shadow of those numbers, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has decided to lift a large portion of the state-wide COVID-19 mask mandate.

Public K-12 Schools in the State of Louisiana will remain under a mask mandate. Private schools across the state are free to lift their mandates.

However, Public K-12 schools can "opt out" as long as they continue to follow CDC guidelines on quarantine procedures. Meaning a school can have a mask mandate, but allow students with close contacts to avoid quarantine. Or they can ditch the masks, but keep the quarantine measures in place.

Edwards said:

"I will lift Louisiana’s statewide mask mandate in all settings except for K-12 schools, which may opt out as long as they continue implementing existing CDC quarantine guidance"

This re-issued mask mandate came back on August 4th, and has remained in place ever since. When the mandate was re-issued, the state had a 7-day rolling average of over 3,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 daily. Since then, Louisiana's 7-day rolling average has dropped down to around 323 cases.