BATON ROUGE, La. – September 30, 2020 – Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome issued the following statement:

“This afternoon, the Commissioner of ATC approved my request to opt-in East Baton Rouge Parish, and we will begin working with businesses in our area to open as quickly as possible. My administration has followed all of the recommendations from ATC to ease restrictions, which business can now implement immediately. This is a result of the hard work our citizens have put in over the last few months to slow the spread of COVID-19. As Mayor-President, it is my responsibility to see that it is done in as safe a manner as possible.

“I welcome the council's support of my decision to apply to get our businesses reopened, should they choose to take steps to do so this evening. This is not an open invitation for the public to ignore the guidelines we have laid out. If we want to keep moving forward to return to some sense of normalcy, I implore everyone to visit these establishments with a commitment to wear masks and properly social distance.”