With Governor John Bel Edwards extending Phase 2 until August 7, many business in Louisiana will suffer an even greater financial loss. President of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Stephen Waguespack, says the governor and state health officials need to come up with a better response to COVID-19 that will help business right now.
“I mean there are real consequences we are going to be faced with,” said Waguespack. “Everyone wants to protect public safety and do whatever it takes. But if by doing that is the only game plan is to wear a mask and then we will let you know every two weeks what the future looks like, that is going to get pretty daunting for a lot of folks to figure out how their next six months is going to look like.”
He says the federal Payroll Protection Program, which gives money to businesses in the form of a forgivable loan, is expected to run out of money soon, which will further compound problems with devastating effect for struggling businesses.
“If we stay in this trap of testing, going back to schools, and have (hospital) capacity shortfalls without offering new solutions or ideas, we are going to be in an every two week extention of this for quite some time,” said Waguespack. “And our economy we think; is not strong enough fo this death by a thousand cuts.”
He suggests federal and local leaders need to come up with an 'out-the-box' approach to testing and find ways to help the economy recover.