City Announces Eased Restrictions in its Modified Phase Two Guidelines due to Sustained Decrease in COVID Cases (2.25.2021)

The City of New Orleans today announced that new COVID-19 guidelines will go into effect on Friday, Feb. 26 – increasing gathering size limits to 75 indoors and 150 outdoors, respectively; raising table limits to 15; and increasing indoor stadium capacity to 15% and outdoor stadium capacity to 25%.

The past 30 days have shown a sustained decrease in case counts, transmission rate, and positivity rate, allowing for further easing of some restrictions. COVID-19 metrics remain low; case counts are around 50 cases per day, the positivity rate remains under 2%, and the transmission rate is well below 1.0.

For those reasons, the New Orleans Health Department is updating the City of New Orleans Modified Phase Two guidelines, which will go into effect Friday, Feb 26, at 6 a.m.:

• Indoor public and private gatherings will be limited to 75 individuals, and outdoor public and private gatherings will be limited to 150 individuals. In both settings, participants must practice social distancing and wear masks at all times except while actively eating or drinking.
• At restaurants, bars, breweries, libraries, offices, and other businesses, no more than 15 individuals may be seated at a table.
• Indoor stadiums may open at up to 15% capacity, and outdoor stadiums may open at up to 25% capacity. Social distancing and masking guidelines remain the same in these settings.

These changes further align the City’s guidelines with the State of Louisiana Modified Phase Two emergency order.

To view COVID-19 data trends in Orleans Parish, visit ready.nola.gov/data and to read more about guidelines, visit ready.nola.gov/restrictions.