New Orleans is shutting down bars, eliminating restaurant dining and banning crowds as some wonder if the February Mardi Gras celebration contributed to the spread of the coronavirus that has sickened many and thrown many out of work.
NEW ORLEANS — A week ago, revelers jammed bars in the French Quarter and New Orleans’ Irish Channel neighborhood ahead of St. Patrick’s Day while hotels, taverns and restaurants looked ahead to what is usually a lucrative festival season.dread has settled uncomfortably over this most social of cities, where public gatherings are banned and eight of Louisiana’s 12 COVID-19 deaths had been recorded as of Friday.
“Laissez les bon temps rouler” has given way to a new municipal maxim: “Wash your hands.” The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is postponed until fall. Other events are canceled. Bars are closed.“It really came to a screeching halt,” Philip Moseley said of business at Blue Oak BBQ, which he co-owns with Ronnie Evans. They have added phone lines to handle takeout business, but have laid off about half of their roughly 50 staffers.
Turner noted a certain irony. She said Bourbon Street hospitality workers think a source of the city’s infections might be one of the vital tourism industry’s biggest draws, the citywide pre-Lenten Carnival celebrations that culminated on Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, which fell on Feb. 25. Tourists from around the country and the world filled the streets. “There’s no way that can’t be a reason,” she said.
“During Mardi Gras, people were not thinking about social distancing or hand washing,” Oberhelman he added.
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