Due to coronavirus, White House recommends Louisiana roll back indoor dining

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The White House Coronavirus Task Force has for weeks recommended Louisiana take more drastic steps to stem the rise of the coronavirus, including rolling back indoor dining rules, closing gyms and limiting gatherings to 10 people.

The recommendations, outlined in state reports sent weekly by the White House that were obtained through a public records request, show federal officials have backed stringent rules to tamp down Louisiana’s latest surge in cases and hospitalizations.

While the state has largely followed the White House’s lead on coronavirus restrictions since the outset of the pandemic, Gov. John Bel Edwards has recently kept many of the state’s rules in place despite stricter recommendations from the task force.

For instance, on July 14, the task force recommended mask mandates and the closure of bars and gyms in hot spots, in a report that came days after Edwards shuttered bars and mandated masks statewide.

But in that report, and in documents dated July 20 and July 26, the task force also recommended moving to outdoor dining and limiting indoor dining to less than 25% of normal capacity, as well as limiting gathering sizes to 10. Currently indoor dining is allowed at 50% capacity in Louisiana and the gathering limit is 50.

Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Edwards, said the governor received the recommendations to roll back indoor dining just days after announcing the mask mandate and bar closure. Edwards wants to see if those moves will make an impact on coronavirus trends before issuing new restrictions, she said.

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