And now Louisiana has more cases per capita than every other state except for New York and Washington.

Governor John Bel Edwards, receiving a major disaster declaration and here Via FaceTime, is the director of the New Orleans Public Health Department, Dr Jennifer of Ed.

No thanks for being with us.

Doctor of Egg.

No, in Orleans Parish has the sixth highest rate of known Corona virus cases of any county in the U.

S.

Do you know why?

Well, I think there's a lot of reasons I don't know that we'll ever know why.

Because it's multifactorial, you know, like we're in.

Urban areas were not as dense as New York, but we know that density of crowds spreads disease.

We are social people.

We are out all the time.

As you know, we have festivals, we have celebrations, we have parades.

And so we're more likely in February to be in close contact with one another than other places, and we're also intergenerational.

There is a lot of family connectedness here, and a lot of people living under one roof.

And then finally, you know, we have ramped up our testing significantly.

So a lot of the increase that we're seeing is due to being able to perform a lot more tests in a short period of time compared to other states, right?

And we know that state and local governments there have incurred This is a huge number more than $65.6 million in costs related to the Corona virus in Louisiana.

So what needs to happen next for your area?

Well, we're really encouraged by the president accepting our governor's request to declare a disaster, as he's done in other states.

That is gonna help tremendously in getting those resource is that we need, like, everywhere else, like New York City, like Los Angeles, like Seattle, like everywhere else in between.

We need equipment.

We need ventilators, we need personal protective equipment.

We need the things that every community in America is struggling to get, and so we really appreciate having these extra resource is we have been on this working this for weeks and weeks, but this is going to really benefit our health care workers and our community and speaking to that, do you feel like a this point?

New Orleans has been a part of the national discussion.

Or have you been overlooked until now?

Because certainly you're making headlines today.

Well, you know, it's not about being first.

It's not about being worst.

It's about understanding the magnitude and advocating our congressional delegation certainly hasn't been quiet.

They have been advocating for us for day one.

We are fortunate, You know, this is not our first crisis.

This is not our first disaster.

We are battle tested.

We have great relationships with the governor's office with the state, and we've been working together on this for weeks, advocating we knew what we were going to need and started asking early eso whether we're getting media coverage or that of that or not.

We've always been out front, trying to get what we needed.

You certainly make a very good point.

New Orleans knows how in the state of Louisiana knows how to rise up.

Dr.

Jennifer of Egg.

No, thanks for being with us today.

Thank you so much.

Hi, everyone.

George Stephanopoulos here.

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