MANDEVILLE – St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper said he plans to comply with Governor John Bel Edwards’ decision to extend Phase 2 for another 28 days, and he called on all parish residents to step up their COVID-19 precautions.
Cooper said the rising number of COVID-19 cases in St. Tammany Parish lead to his decision to continue following statewide orders put forth by the governor.
“Here in St. Tammany Parish, we have surpassed 2,000 positive COVID-19 cases. We anticipate that we will closely conform to the Governor’s extension of Phase 2 for 28 additional days. We want to balance the health of our community with the health of our economy. I urge all St. Tammany citizens to take personal responsibility to help mitigate community the spread of COVID-19,” Cooper said. “Wear a mask in public, maintain physical distancing, and avoid large gatherings. If we all do our part, we can slow the community spread, and move into Phase 3 when these 28 days are over. We await the final details of the Governor’s order later this week.”
St. Tammany Corporation CEO Chris Masingill echoed Cooper in calling for residents to step up their use of masks and to maintain safe social distances.
“As Phase 2 extends for an additional 28 days, we encourage all business owners to have employees wear masks when interacting with the public,” Masingill said. “We also encourage any businesses who have not already, to visit opensafely.la.gov to utilize the resources available from the office of the Governor and the Louisiana State Fire Marshal. We want to resume operations in the safest ways possible and as the business community, do our part to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. It is important to note that the case growth cannot only be attributed to the increased volume of testing, but also to community spread.”
Edwards cited rising COVID-19 numbers across the state as further proof that the amount of testing is not connected to the amount of people suffering from the effects of the virus when he announced the extension of Phase 2 on June 22.
“While we know that increasing testing means that we will see more positive cases, we are still troubled by the rising case counts across the state, especially since around 90 percent of these new cases are coming from the community and not from congregate settings like nursing homes,” Edwards said. “It is up to all of us to check our own behaviors and to take responsibility for slowing the spread of COVID. We do not want to have to go back to a time of increased restrictions where fewer businesses could operate. It is my hope that all of us – from government officials to business owners to students – will do the right thing.”
