Governor: Testing logjam contributes to bump in COVID-19 numbers

The big one-day increase in COVID-19 infections reported Thursday has much to do with a backlog of cases at commercial testing labs, said Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards. In fact, he said, the trajectory may be improving a little.
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Also at Thursday's press conference, Edwards said Louisiana people will be receiving text messages at 4 p.m. about his decision to extend the state stay at home order through April 30.

The 2,726 increase in newly reported COVID-19 infections at noon Thursday was inflated by new reports coming in from testing labs, Edwards said.

"They are less a sign of exponential growth in a couple of days than a sign of logjams that occurred in commercial labs over several days," he said.

As testing increases, the trend is toward growth in Louisiana that more closely resembles growth in the rest of the country.

But the state will still feel tragic consequences from the disease. The same models that are predicting 100,000-240,000 U.S. deaths from the coronavirus predict 1,834 deaths in Louisiana, Edwards said.

Also, the text messages are a new method for delivering information to Louisiana residents, You can sign up for text messages by texting LACOVID to 67283.