NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The French Quarter Festival, in which thousands of festivalgoers crowd the streets of the historic New Orleans neighborhood to listen to brass bands, zydeco and other music, has become the latest victim of Louisiana's fourth coronavirus surge.
Festival organizers Friday announced they were canceling the festival, which had been slated for Sept. 30-Oct. 2. The major tourist draw is the latest to be canceled as Louisiana continues as a hot spot for the fourth surge of the coronavirus — a status fueled by the state's low vaccination rates and the highly contagious delta variant. Other events such as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival have already canceled events slated for this summer and fall.
“After careful consideration and with consultation from a host of experts including City and State officials, we concluded this was the best decision for the safety and security of our community,” said Emily Madero, CEO of French Quarter Festivals Inc., in a news release announcing the decision.
The event will return to the French Quarter April 21-24 of next year, organizers said Friday.
The Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, which takes place in Lafayette, is also being canceled for this fall, organizers announced. That festival had been slated for Oct. 8-10 and instead will take place March 18-20 of next year.
“This decision was not made lightly,” organizers said on their website. “Festival organizers have decided that we cannot with a clear conscience put our Festival Fans and our beloved musicians, restaurant workers, crafts persons, volunteers and staffers at risk."
Louisiana has set new daily records for the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 for two weeks, reaching 2,907 patients Friday. Ninety-one percent of those hospitalized are unvaccinated, according to state health department data.
Only 38% of Louisiana’s population is vaccinated against the coronavirus illness, among the bottom five states in the nation, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the numbers of people seeking their first shot has increased dramatically over the last month, with nearly 46% of Louisiana’s residents starting the vaccine series.
Louisiana handed out $2.3 million in cash prizes and scholarships through a vaccine lottery aimed at encouraging people to get the shots. The winner of the $1 million grand prize was announced Friday: Janet Mann, 63, a retired teacher from Bossier City.
As coronavirus cases have surged again, demand for the vaccine has strengthened enough that hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other health providers administering the vaccines across Louisiana have started sharply increased the doses they’re ordering.
State Department of Health spokesperson Aly Neel said Louisiana vaccine providers requested fewer than 13,000 vaccine doses from federal officials the week of July 5. That has grown larger nearly every week since, Neel said, reaching nearly 70,000 doses requested the week of Aug. 2.
“There was a 440% increase in the number of vaccine doses ordered the first full week of August compared to the first full week in July,” she said.
Still, the growing interest in vaccines hasn’t been fast enough to save some of Louisiana’s expiring shots. About 91,000 coronavirus vaccines have been wasted since the start of the immunization rollout, according to data from the health department. And a significant portion of that waste came because hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other providers couldn’t find someone to take the shots.
The doses trashed in Louisiana so far represent 2% of the nearly 3.8 million doses that reached arms.
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