New Orleans Health Department director Dr. Jennifer Avegno today said there is less COVID in New Orleans, and that's good, since Mardi Gras is ramping up. She told the New Orleans City Council Quality of Life Committee that masks and vaccinations are part of why she and other health officials don't expect Mardi Gras 2022 to be a super spreader the way Mardi Gras 2020 was.
Speaking of masks, she was also asked by council member Leslie Harris to addressed the controversy from the New Orleans Mayor's Mardi Gras ball last week. Harris noted that she had been called out publicly, along with Mayor Cantrell, for being photographed maskless at the event.
"I did have masks on at certain points," said Harris, "but let's remind ourselves and the public what it means to have the indoor mask mandate when your eating, drinking, and taking photographs."
Dr. Avegno said only two out of three of those are allowed exceptions.
"In any indoor public space, you should be wearing a mask unless you are actively eating and drinking," she said. "There isn't a specific clause for photographs."
If someone takes their mask off to snap a photo and the puts it back on, Dr. Avegno said "certainly that is a relatively low risk, but if you're doing it a hundred, a thousand times a night, then it maybe violates the spirit."
Dr. Avegno said their data, and data that has come from other cities and counties where mask mandates were ordered, show that COVID doesn't spread as easily when people follow mask mandates.
