Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards pleaded with residents Thursday to stay home and limit contact with others as the number of coronavirus cases explodes across the state, making it one of the country's fastest-growing virus hot spots.

"You have it within your power the opportunity to save lives if you simply minimize your contact with other people," Edwards told residents during a press conference, repeatedly asking them to comply with the stay-at-home order issued Sunday.

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"I am imploring people to do better," he said, after acknowledging that his tone at the press conference was more urgent than in recent days because of the lastest case figures.

The state recorded the highest case growth rate in the world in the first 15 days since the first confirmed diagnosis, according to an analysis done for state health officials by University of Louisiana at Lafayette economics professor Gary Wagner. The state's growth rate is on par with the trajectories of Italy and Spain, both of which have been hit badly by the virus and are effectively shut down.

Louisiana officials on Thursday reported 510 new coronavirus cases, the state's largest one-day jump since the beginning of the pandemic. The new figures catapult Louisiana to No. 2 in the country for cases per capita, tied with New Jersey, Edwards said.

Officials also reported 18 new deaths Thursday, including the death of a 17-year-old. It's not yet known if the teenager had any underlying medical conditions.

Overall, 2,305 people in the state have tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Eighty-three people have died.

More than half the cases and the majority of deaths have been reported in or around New Orleans, though outbreaks continue to grow in parishes around the state. Cases have been reported in 53 of the state's 64 parishes.

"Nobody should look at this situation and think, 'This doesn't involve me, this doesn't involve my town, it doesn't involve my parish,'" Edwards said. "There are no places it isn't, there are places we haven't detected it."

Edwards said that the New Orleans area could run out of ventilators to keep critically ill patients alive by the first week of April if the number of cases continues to grow at a breakneck pace, while the number of hospital beds in the region would likely run out days later. Health care resources around the state could run out if the curve of the disease spread does not flatten, he said.

"If we don't slow the spread of this virus, if we don't slow the spread of these cases, this is what's going to happen," Edwards said. "It's not conjecture, this isn't some flimsy theory, this isn't a scare tactic. This is what's going to happen."

Edwards spoke at length about efforts to increase hospital capacity across the state.