Jay Dardenne: JBE's Mask Mandate 'A Reluctant Decision'

Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne talks about the "reluctant decision" by Governor John Bel Edwards to impose a statewide mask mandate for Louisiana citizens.

Dardenne explains what happened between to cause Governor Edwards to change his mind when, just last week, he said that a statewide mask rule was not being considered. "I know that he had his eye on what was happening across the state ever since we went to Phase II," Dardenne begins, "It became apparent that we weren't moving in the right direction."

The Commissioner then cites the state's COVID 19 stats as the major reason for the Edwards announcement. "We had fallen, I think, to number ten in the nation in terms of the number of cases...and all of a sudden we're back to number three, right behind New York and New Jersey. We're going in the wrong direction in hospitalizations and with numbers of cases across the state and that is what prompted the decision that he very reluctantly made to impose the statewide masking that had previously been left up to the localities."

And as far as the enforcement of the Governor's mandate, Dardenne explains who is responsible. "Nobody except the people whose stores you visit," he explains, "The Governor made that very clear. We're not going to enforce our way out of this. We're not going to have people going around looking for people not wearing masks.to give them citations. It's going to happen by stores and other places that people visit saying, 'You need to wear a mask when you're in this store.'"