Despite being one of the nation's early pandemic hot spots, New Orleans is now doing better than the state as a whole, and even the country. City officials say it shows that their pandemic mandates are working to protecting public health.
"For every hundred thousand (people in the city), we've had 247 die," New Orleans Health Department Director Dr. Jennifer Avegno told members of the New Orleans City Council. "Our numbers, although we were the hot spot in deaths early in the pandemic, are actually lower than our neighbors, and I think that's in no small part due to our stricter adherence and stricter mitigation measures."
Dr. Avegno says the city's COVID death rate is lower than Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes, and lower than the statewide and national death rates from COVID.
The city is the only place in the state where businesses like bars, restaurants, night clubs and event venues must check patrons for proof of vaccination or recent negative COVID test. And Orleans has the highest vaccination rate in the state, at more than two-thirds the total population.
Even so, Dr. Avegno says that 247 per hundred thousand is still a staggering number: "That brings our total up to close to a thousand deaths since the pandemic started."
She says that's why the city continues to impose a vaccine mandate and requires indoor masking.