MANDEVILLE – The St. Tammany Corporation has released its May edition of “Snapshot: Impacts of COVID-19 on St. Tammany.” Four takeaways from this month’s report:
- St. Tammany has recorded 25,800 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases and has surpassed 500 COVID-related deaths over 14 months. However, daily new cases have stayed below 100 for three months, and for 11 consecutive days in April, there were no new COVID- 19 deaths in St. Tammany. St. Tammany also continues to have one of the highest vaccination rates in the state.
- So far in 2021, the average number of weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance in St. Tammany is about a quarter of the 2020 average. The unemployment rate has remained below 6.0% in St. Tammany for five consecutive months.
- While many households across the nation now feel more comfortable traveling and returning to work, school, and doctors’ appointments, many households continue to struggle with finances, employment, housing, and food insecurity resulting from the ongoing economic crisis.
- Gas prices in the New Orleans Metro are among the lowest 5% of metro areas in the nation at a time when the national average fuel price has surpassed $3.00 per gallon for the first time since 2014.
“As economic developers, it’s our job to pay close attention to multiple factors that affect our community’s economy and well-being,” said Chris Masingill, CEO of St. Tammany Corporation. “Over the past year, I have been proud of the way we have taken that responsibility a step further by packaging the data in a format that can be useful to local decision-makers and other interested members of the community as we navigate the overlapping challenges of the pandemic and economic downturn together.”
The AnalyST research initiative, led by Elizabeth Lee, tracks, interprets, visualizes, and reports on an array of the economic and demographic indicators that make up St. Tammany.
Additional resources and previous publications, including today’s release of the Snapshot in an interactive dashboard format, can be found at www.sttammanystats.com.
