Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration may be backing away from requiring every visitor coming into town for Mardi Gras to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test.
If a large-scale Carnival celebration returns to New Orleans, Mayor Cantrell previously suggested she would like to find a way to check everyone's COVID status. That may be changing now.
“The expectation is that you are vaccinated if you want to do anything fun,” said mayoral spokesperson Beau Tidwell. “Right now the way it is set up, if you want to go to a restaurant, if you want to go to a music event, you either got to provide a vaccination card or a negative test.
Instead, City Health Director, Dr. Jennifer Avegno, talked about a plan to use this Saturday's Krewe of Boo parade as a laboratory to determining if the city can safely hold large events ahead of Carnival 2022.
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Dr. Avegno says tracking everyone's COVID status will let them know if New Orleans can safely hold a parade and move forward with plans for Mardi Gras parades in February.
“The Health Department, our volunteers and partners will be actively surveying krewe members, parade participants and crowdgoers, before, during and after the parade Saturday evening,” Avegno said. “We would love to get as many of them as we can, so we are talking about one thousand people. That is a really substantial survey,” said Avegno. “Do your part for science and for our community this weekend.”