After last year’s Mardi Gras parades were blamed for an early spread of Covid-19 last March, the city is taking no chances this year: No parades, for the first time since 1979, when a police strike called it off.
The city’s current rules ban outdoor gatherings over 150 people. The city’s communication director, Beau Tidwell, told a news conference that “The guidelines are very clear that you can’t have a gathering that large.”
Last year’s parades, which drew more than a million visitors, took place in late February, just as coronavirus concern was becoming widespread. The city’s first Covid-19 case was identified March 9.
