At his Tuesday press conference, Governor Edwards announced the feds committed to providing Louisiana with the resources needed to be able to administer 200,000 COVID tests a month.
Edwards says starting next month the state will receive increasingly larger shipments of test kit materials every week to help them reach that goal.
“These are swabs, viral transport medium, test tubes, and reagents, which is great news because these are the things that are hardest to get,” says Edwards.
Louisiana Department of Health Assistant Secretary Alex Billioux says that’s great because they’re testing more potential asymptomatic carriers who work or live with those in high-risk groups.
“We think that there really is more and more evidence now that the asymptomatic testing is going to be helpful for those individuals,” says Billioux.
First responders and those who work in nursing homes were targeted for potential increased asymptomatic testing.
Edwards also addressed comments by New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell who told reporters she’s considering canceling Mardi Gras 2021.
“I have declined to answer questions about what this fall is going to look like so I am certainly not going to go to net January and February and presume to know,” says Edwards.
