Gov. John Bel Edwards | Facebook
Gov. John Bel Edwards | Facebook
Gov. John Bel Edwards said he did not violate any Phase 3 rules.
The governor was photographed without a mask at the Baton Rouge Country Club seemingly going against his own statewide mask mandate, according to WBRZ
He commented on the photo when he was asked about it at his news conference on the state's response to COVID-19.
"There was absolutely nothing that I did that day that violated the rules that were in place in Phase 3, which is when that actually happened," Edwards answered. "It looked to me like I was getting up to leave. Had that photo been taken 10 seconds later you would've seen me with a mask on till the time I got in the car.... I don't think we ask anybody to eat at a table with a mask on. But you'll see that I'm outdoors and violated absolutely none of the mitigation measures that we have in place."
The statewide mask mandate was issued by Edwards himself in July as a mitigation measure to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Phase 3 was when the governor was photographed maskless.
As of this writing, there are “4,122 COVID-19 cases reported to the state since January 15, 2021’, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
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