The rantings of Clay Higgins and Dan Fagan about freedom to congregate and freedom to do so sans appropriate protection notwithstanding, six Louisiana cities, including the two largest, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, rank among the 50 cities in the U.S. with the highest number of COVID-19 cases on a per-capita basis, according to statistics released today by 24/7 Wall Street.
24/7 Wall Street is a financial news and opinion company which publishes about 30 articles per day on finance, consumerism, and state surveys on such topics as obesity, income, political corruption, taxes, roads, prisons, etc.
In today’s release, the survey considers the number of cases per 100,000 population in its determination of which cities had the most confirmed COVID-19 cases. The populations were not limited to the cities per se, but to the metropolitan areas of each city, which reflects hither populations than the cities themselves.
The Hammond metro area, with a population of 133,777, had 679 cases of the coronavirus as of May 12, giving it an infection rate of 520.3 per 100,000 population, severe enough for 48th highest in the nation. Ranking immediately behind Hammond were Flagstaff, Arizona (49th) and Barnstable, Massachusetts (50th).
Other Louisiana cities included on the list and their rankings included:
- Monroe (44th with 1,094 cases, a rate of infection of 534.9 per 100,000 population);
- Baton Rouge (42nd with 4,789 cases—561.9 per 100,000);
- Shreveport (41st with 2,312 cases—575.5 per 100,000);
- Houma-Thibodaux (39th with 1,248 cases—592.0 per 100,000);
- New Orleans (8th with 17346 cases—1372.7 per 100,000)
Sioux City, Iowa, with 3,521 cases, was highest with an infection rate of 2,431.3 per 100,000 population, followed by New York-Newark-Jersey City with 426,361 cases, a rate of 2,207 per 100,000 population.
The survey used COVID-19 data from state and local health departments, along with population data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“The cities on this list tend to have at least one of several characteristics that make them particularly vulnerable,” the release said. Most on the list, for example are densely populated and others are manufacturing hubs or magnets for domestic or international tourism.
“Regardless of the contributing factors to the high concentration of COVID-19 cases…the total number of cases would likely have been much high if not for the stay-at-home orders that were implemented at the state level,” the release said.
It noted that the metro area hardest hit was in Iowa, “one of the few states not to implement a stay-at-home order.”
Louisiana Voice 
Those darned facts just seem to get in the way sometimes.
WWDD? Declare this “fake news”, of course.
Encourage Higgins to follow his own advice. Then soon enough the rest of us will not have to worry about his lunacy.
And how does Higgins square his COVID-19 advice with his Peace Officer oath “To Protect and to Serve?”
Apparently he interprets that motto to include the word “myself” at the end.
Former Louisianaian….I would love to find an oath that these Republicans take that mean a “pig’s eye” to them. They swear to oaths as easily as they lie about everything all of the time. I am just amazed at how successful lying as become!
Edith, Lying and violation of oath of office is hardly exclusive to Republicans.
For better or worse, freedom to peaceably assemble is guaranteed in the 1st amendment, and short of martial law, that right is absolute. Of course, a prudent person would avoid gatherings during any pandemic event and I would hope, follow safe practices, like hand washing, no face touching, even during common flu season. No one actually wants to see people die from anything, especially when death or hospitalization could be avoided. Sweden protected the vulnerable, and left everyone else to their own devices and seemed to fare pretty well so far. Gov Cuomo failed to protect the vulnerable and we saw what happened; extensive deaths in nursing homes.