COVID-19

More than 450,000 Louisiana small businesses may be eligible for grants under a federally funded COVID-19 relief program, State Treasurer John Schroder said Monday.
The Louisiana Main Street Recovery Program fund contains $300 million. So if Schroder’s estimate is close to accurate, the grants for each business could be less than $700, though there is no way to know yet how many will apply or how much they will request. The maximum possible grant amount is $15,000.
“It’s not going to go far,” Schroder said.

Free mobile COVID-19 testing is available from 8 to 11 a.m. today at Eunice High School, 301 S. Bobcat Dr.
The Louisiana Department of Health/Office of Public Health and St. Landry Parish government have teamed up with the Louisiana National Guard to offer the testing through July 7. The Guard will staff the sites from 8 to 11 a.m.
Other dates and sites are:
— June 24, Sunset, Sunset Middle School, 236 Churchill St.;
— June 24, Krotz Springs, Krotz Springs Elementary School, 445 Division St.;

A recent forecast of the size of the “Dead Zone” in the northern Gulf of Mexico for late July is that it will cover 7,769 square-miles of the bottom of the continental shelf off Louisiana and Texas.
The coronavirus pandemic has had no impact on the Gulf of Mexico dead zone. The unusually high Mississippi River discharge in May controls the size of this zone, which will likely be the seventh largest zone since systematic measurements began in 1985.