Mayor asks residents to avoid New Year's Eve party in downtown BR due to COVID surge
BATON ROUGE - Despite the anticipated return of East Baton Rouge's annual end-of-year bash, the city-parish is warning residents to stay at home for New Year's Eve amid a new surge of coronavirus cases brought on by the Omicron variant.
While the mayor's office did not go as far as to cancel the event, Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome released a statement Friday afternoon suggesting that residents avoid Red Stick Revelry, just hours before the event sponsored in part by the city-parish government.
"While the organizers of Red Stick Revelry have gone to great lengths to present an exceptional and safe New Year's Eve Celebration, we cannot ignore the potential health hazards events like this pose. As many have indicated, the safest place to be tonight is at home," the mayor's statement read.
The mayor's office said that anyone who planned to attend the event Friday night should wear a mask and adhere to social distancing guidelines.
Trending News
This week, Louisiana reported back-to-back days of record-breaking COVID numbers. That peaked Thursday with more than 12,000 new cases reported statewide that day alone.