Muted Mardi Gras: Closed Bars, Barricaded Bourbon Street
By Kevin McGill, Associated Press
Published April 16, 2021
Elvin King III, a high school senior, poses for a portrait in front of his home in New Orleans, Friday, Feb. 12. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Music blared from the courtyard of a French Quarter restaurant on Mardi Gras morning but nobody was there to hear it until Tom Gibson and Sheila Wheeler of Philadelphia walked out of their hotel’s nearly empty lobby.
“We were expecting a little bit lower key than the normal Mardi Gras,” Wheeler said. But empty Bourbon Street was a shock.
February 17, 2021 Share
A paralyzing winter storm wrought havoc with COVID-19 vaccination efforts around the country on Tuesday, forcing the cancellation of appointments and delaying vaccine deliveries just as the federal government rolled out new mass vaccination sites aimed at reaching hard-hit communities.
FEMA opened its first COVID-19 inoculation sites in Los Angeles and Oakland, part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to get shots into arms more quickly and reach minority communities hit hard by the outbreak.
The developments came as the vaccination drive ramps up. The U.S. is administering an average of nearly 1.7 million doses per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Crippling storm hampers vaccinations as FEMA opens new sites independenttribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from independenttribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Crippling winter weather is hampering vaccination efforts in swaths of the country and that has forced the cancellation of some mass inoculation events.