OVERVIEW OF BUSINESSES THAT CAN OPEN DURING PHASE 2
Businesses that will be able to open at 50 percent occupancy include:
- Restaurants, cafes and coffee shops
- Shopping malls (including food courts, following restaurant guidance)
- Gyms and fitness centers
- Barber and beauty shops and nail salons
- Movie theaters
- Racetracks (with an approved plan from the Louisiana Racing Commission)
- Museums (including children’s museums), zoos, aquariums (no tactile exhibits)
- Bars and breweries with LDH food permits
- Massage establishments, spas, and tattoo establishments (under strict guidance from LDH), esthetician services (under strict guidance from the Cosmetology Board)
- Pool halls, bowling alleys and skating rinks (children must be accompanied by an adult)
- Event Centers and wedding venues
- Outdoor playgrounds and play centers (children must be accompanied by an adult)
Casinos and video poker establishments may open at 50 percent occupancy, but limited to 75 percent of their gaming positions, with spacing to allow for social distancing and with enhanced sanitization. Plans must be submitted to the Gaming Control Board which will issue guidance to these facilities.
Bars and breweries that do not have LDH food permits will be able to open with social distancing requirements and patrons seated at 25 percent occupancy.
Additional guidance will be released relaxing some regulations for summer camps in Phase Two. Sleep-away camps are not allowed in Phase Two.
The following businesses remain closed: carnivals, amusement parks, water parks, fairs, contact sports, children’s indoor play centers, arcades, trampoline parks, theme parks, concert and music halls, and other similar businesses. Live entertainment is not permitted inside any building or indoor function.
However, any business that is directed to be closed in the Phase Two order may petition to reopen under a plan approved by the State Fire Marshal in consultation with LDH. The State Fire Marshal may approve this plan or offer guidance on how the business may reopen in Phase Three.
The Governor encourages businesses that can allow employees to work remotely to consider doing so, especially if an employee is at high risk for becoming seriously ill from COVID-19 or shares a household with a high risk person.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
- Business and faith leaders can visit OpenSafely.la.gov to receive guidance and updates from the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Louisiana Department of Health. Businesses that require approval of reopening plans will be notified by the State Fire Marshal’s Office or the Louisiana Department of Health.
- For a guide listing businesses that can be open at any given time, visit gov.louisiana.gov/page/can-this-business-open.
- Members of the public can continue to get information from the Governor’s office by visiting Coronavirus.la.gov and by texting LACOVID to 67283.
- Members of the public can continue to get information from the Department of Health by visiting ldh.la.gov/coronavirus.
- People with general questions about COVID-19 in Louisiana can call 211.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu