With No Coronavirus Deaths In 3 Days, New Orleans Is Having A ‘Remarkable Turnaround’
New Orleans is no stranger to comebacks, and right now the city is shaking back in a major way.
Not only has New Orleans been the hotbed for the coronavirus in the state, but the Cresent City has also had one of the highest per-capita death rates in the country when it comes to COVID-19. A recent article from Forbes highlights what they call a "remarkable turnaround for a city that was hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
This is the first time the city hasn’t recorded a Covid-19 death over three consecutive days since March 11-13, the period immediately preceding the city’s first death on March 14.
To further highlight how important these numbers are it should be noted that by the end of March New Orleans had the highest per capita death rate in the United States.
more than twice as high as any other locality in the country — according to an analysis from The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, with more total Covid-19 deaths there at the time than in Manhattan.
The majority of the blame for the rampant outbreak in New Orleans was placed on the city's Mardi Gras celebrations. With an estimated 1.4 million visitors from around the world packed into a city of 400,000, it's easy to see how the annual celebration would have ramped up the outbreak.
Statewide stay-at-home orders were put in place in mid-March which helped put a lid on the spread of COVID-19 in New Orleans, and by mid-April "the city had the fastest decrease of new cases" when it came to major metro areas in the U.S.
Over the weekend New Orleans moved into Phase 1 with the rest of Louisiana, opening many businesses at limited capacity. What was once the worst area for COVID-19 in Louisiana isn't even the worst city in the state anymore. It was recently surpassed by nearby Jefferson Parish for the highest total of positive coronavirus cases.
Let's hope we continue to see these numbers drop for New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana as local businesses slowly begin to reopen and local residents begin to rebuild.