New Orleans is on track to become the next coronavirus epicenter in the United States, dashing hopes that less densely populated and warmer-climate cities would not be hit as hard by the pandemic, and that summer months could see it wane.
The plight of New Orleans — with the world’s highest growth rate in coronavirus cases and where authorities have warned hospitals could collapse by April 4 — also raises fears it may be a powerful catalyst in speedily spreading the virus across the south of the country.
Some 70% of Louisiana’s 1,795 confirmed cases to date are in the New Orleans metro area.
