The first cases of Covid-19 came two weeks after the parades ended, and now the rise is making the city another US epicentre
Revelers in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras celebrations on February 25 2020 in New Orleans, the US. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/AFP/JONATHAN BACHMANNew Orleans, the Louisiana city known as the “Big Easy” famed for its jazz and nightlife, has become an epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic gripping the US.
“Mardi Gras was the perfect storm for the spread of this virus,” said Rebekah Gee, Louisiana’s former health secretary, talking to MSNBC. “Not only did we have people in floats, people in parties, but people from all over the world came here.” The southern US state, as of Friday, has more than 2,300 confirmed cases and 83 deaths. New Orleans alone accounts for nearly 1,000 of the cases and about 50 of the deaths.“This is going to be the disaster that defines our generation,” said Collin Arnold, director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for New Orleans, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
On March 15, a Saturday night, after the order was given, it took police coming out in force to get reluctant crowds off the streets. Video footage taken that evening shows a convoy of police cars driving slowly down Bourbon Street with their blue rooftop lights flashing and their sirens blaring. He said the trajectory of the growth in cases is similar to that of Italy and Spain, the worst-hit countries in Europe, and demand for hospital beds and ventilators could outstrip capacity by early April.
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