The private lab processing the coronavirus tests of residents who've used New Orleans' drive-thru sites has been taking between seven and 10 days to provide results, a delay that Health Department Director Jennifer Avegno called "unconscionable" in a Wednesday press conference.

More than 8,000 people have been tested since New Orleans stood up two sites on March 20, but thousands of results are still waiting to be processed, including some from the first day, Avegno said. The two have since been consolidated to a single location at the University of New Orleans' Lakefront Arena; another is open at the Alario Center in Westwego.

Officials have been seeking answers from LabCorp, the private lab responsible for the processing the tests, but do not yet know why the results are taking so long.

"It gives me great concern and great frustration that our residents who are ill and anxious and quarantined at home and were able to use this service to get a test are not able to get their results," Avegno said. "We have been pushing LabCorp in particular for days to explain this. We know what a challenging time this is, and to add to that anxiety is unconscionable."

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New Orleans resident Joe Heeren-Mueller said he's been waiting for his results since March 22, when he was tested after experiencing chest pain and a fever.

He lives with his wife and four children and works with people who have recently secured housing after living on the streets.

"I was hoping to find out if I had the virus," Heeren-Mueller said. "Had I exposed other people to it? Was I at risk of exposing people further? I was concerned for my own health as well."

But the results have yet to come, even though Heeren-Mueller has called the Louisiana National Guard, the state and city health departments, the U.S. Public Health Service, 211, 311, LabCorp and his doctor.

"I’ve called a lot of numbers," he said. "Most folks told me to call somebody else."

LabCorp did not respond to a request for comment.

Avegno said that testing delays both from the city's sites and other healthcare providers means there is still a backlog of tests of New Orleans residents that have not yet been reported. As some of those results began to come in over the past few days, the number of known cases in the city has surged, and now stands at more than 2,270 New Orleanians with positive results.

Of that group, 115 have died, giving the city a mortality rate of about 5% for known cases.

"This is a lethal virus; this is a deadly virus," Avegno said, noting the death toll in New Orleans now nearly matches the number of homicides the city saw last year.

"This virus is deadlier than a bullet," she said.

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Avegno said she expects the number of cases in the city will continue to surge in the coming days, both as a result of older test results coming in and because it is still too soon for the full effects of city and state restrictions on gatherings and businesses to show up in the data.

"We've really done a fantastic job in a very short period of time changing our behavior, but there's really some lag time," Avegno said.

In Italy, for example, the country has been in a far stricter lock-down for four weeks and is only just now seeing its numbers decline.

Heeren-Mueller said he's feeling better now and likely would have returned to work already if he had a negative test result in hand.

"What I’ve experienced really shouldn’t be allowed to continue," he said.