Texas/Louisiana Border Shutdown RECOMMENDED by New Orleans Lawmaker
New Orleans Senator Troy Carter is suggesting Louisiana should put some regulations into place for travelers coming into the state from Texas and other hot spots following an uptick in COVID-19 cases. Carter says the state needs to take every necessary precaution.
“This is not punative, this is not ugly. We totally understood when they wanted to test us at their borders and I think they should understand the necessity for us to test them at ours,” said Carter.
Texas and Florida had previously put regulations onto those coming into those states from Louisiana via roadways and air travel, doing screenings for COVID symptoms and requiring a 14-day quarantine.
Carter says Louisiana residents went through great pains to follow spread mitigation efforts during the stay at home order and feels the state should protect its borders from areas that did not and are seeing the result.
“We followed the rules, we did everything we were supposed to do and as a result we saw the curve flatten and we saw our numbers go down. Texas took a different route, in my estimation, they were not as diligent as our Governor and our people were,” said Carter.
Governor Edwards says the possibility of a border shutdown for hotspots is not off the table, but no one in public health has made the suggestion to do so at this point.
“I really believe more than anything else what we saw out of Florida and Texas was more for domestic political consumption than any change in what they were really doing,” said Edwards.
Texas has seen 17 consecutive days of new records in hospitalizations.