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Guillory clarifies "No community spread" comment made at Tuesday press conference

Posted at 1:56 PM, May 28, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-28 16:21:48-04

Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory has issued a statement clarifying his comments in a press briefing on Tuesday May 26 in reference to community spread of COVID-19.

During that press briefing, Guillory stated that the parish was no longer seeing active community spread.

"At the present time, we are no longer seeing evidence of community spread of the virus, but we are seeing clusters of cases in isolated work environments both here and in our neighboring parishes."

See more from that press conference here

Josh Guillory "no community spread" comment on Tuesday May 26

This comment, Guillory stated, was given based on his understanding of comments made by Region 4 Office of Public Health Director Dr. Tina Stefanski in a morning task force meeting that day.

In a statement on Thursday, Guillory says that his comment at the press briefing was not accurate and clarified that Lafayette Parish is "no longer seeing widespread community transmission."

Read more from his statement below:

"Tuesday I stated that ‘we are no longer seeing evidence of community spread’ of COVID-19, based on my understanding of comments made by Dr. Tina Stefanski on our morning Medical Task Force Call. Dr. Stefanski has since clarified that ‘we are no longer seeing widespread community transmission.’ I have consistently emphasized the seriousness of this public health emergency, while acknowledging the progress we have made as a parish. I'm deeply disappointed that a certain media outlet has chosen to take my comments out of context to suggest I am downplaying the seriousness of our situation, or what the public health data shows. These are the same people who are criticizing the layoff of public employees from venues that aren't able to operate, due to this very same public health emergency. Since the beginning, I have taken this public health emergency with utmost seriousness as I've displayed every single day in full public view. The people of Lafayette Parish deserve better than this kind of ‘gotcha’ journalism."

Full press conference from Tuesday is below:


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