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“I would say that Louisiana was not on and still is not on a very good trajectory compared to other countries in the world who have been exposed to the virus longer than we have,” Wagner said. “What a lot of people are worried about — and you can see this happening in Italy — you have this huge growth in cases and you have a huge percentage of people diagnosed that require hospitalization. You can quickly overwhelm the ability to provide health care services.”

In two weeks, Louisiana has gone from zero to 837 confirmed cases and 20 deaths in 36 of its 64 parishes. While most of the cases were reported in the New Orleans area, more parishes are starting to report their first cases as testing is become more widespread.