BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) – May 4, 2020, UPDATE: The state Fire Marshal’s Office and the Department of Health have launched an online “Open Safely” program to assist businesses with COVID-19 mitigation guidelines. 

The site, opensafely.la.gov, also allows customers to submit complaints if a business is reportedly not complying with distancing guidelines and/or lack of PPE.  

State Fire Marshal Butch Browning joined Gov. John Bel Edwards for Monday’s press briefing to explain the new program and how his agency will continue to conduct compliance checks as businesses, most recently restaurants, open with new requirements. 

Read the full press release from the governor’s office here.

As of Monday, Louisiana is seventh in the country in per-capita COVID-19 cases in the United States. 

“We were second in the nation about two weeks ago,” Edwards noted. 

Overall, he said the state’s latest data shows the spread of cases is slowing. Officials are crediting that to residents and businesses complying to the state’s stay-at-home order and CDC guidelines. 

“The people of Louisiana are responding,” Edwards said. “It appears that we are headed in the right direction.” 

 On Friday, the state will address new testing and contact tracing methods