Gatherings, evacuations during and after Ida worry epidemiologists as COVID delta surge continues

After spending days without a place to stay after Hurricane Ida, Elgin Barden boarded a bus from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to northern Louisiana on Saturday, as part of a city-assisted evacuation program. He arrived at a shelter in Shreveport later that day, he told The Lens, where everyone on the bus was given a COVID test.

A few minutes later, a man came back and told Barden, who is fully vaccinated, that he’d tested positive. Barden wasn’t surprised.

“I was on the street for days, I knew I had it.”

He said after his son caught COVID a few months ago, he started getting tested every two weeks, so he’s pretty sure he picked it up after the storm.

Barden boarded another bus, which took him to a medical shelter in Bossier City. Everyone else from his bus, he believes, went to the main shelter. He said there are only a handful of people there with him, and that staff are constantly checking in, wearing full protective gear. He has no symptoms.

Read more: https://thelensnola.org/2021/09/06/gatherings-evacuations-during-and-after-ida-worry-epidemiologists-as-covid-delta-surge-continues/