All New Orleans Bars Ordered Closed For Mardi Gras

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:

Bars will be closed, people will have to pass through checkpoints to get to major streets like Bourbon and Frenchmen streets and a heavy police presence will patrol New Orleans in the days leading up to Mardi Gras this year as part of a plan aimed at cracking down on crowds to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The new restrictions were announced Friday by Mayor Latoya Cantrell, who said that the moves were necessary to prevent celebrations from becoming superspreader events, as they did last year. “I’d rather be accused of doing too much than doing too little,” Cantrell said.

Under the new rules, all bars citywide will be forced to shut down completely on the Friday before Mardi Gras and only allowed to reopen on Ash Wednesday. That includes the large number of bars that have received conditional use permits to operate as restaurants during the pandemic.

Read the full article.

Bars will be closed, people will have to pass through checkpoints to get to Bourbon Street and a heavy police presence will patrol New Orleans in the days leading up to Mardi Gras this year.

Here’s what we know so far about the city’s plan: ? https://t.co/4tPE4BYFU3

— NOLA.com (@NOLAnews) February 5, 2021