Arkansas Department of Health officials on Thursday said that state’s first patient presumed to have the new coronavirus “likely” contracted the illness during a trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

During a telephone interview, department spokeswoman Meg Mirivel declined to elaborate on the information but said it was based on the agency’s investigation into the movements of the patient, a resident of Pine Bluff whose presumptive COVID-19 positive test result came Wednesday.

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Dr. Nathaniel Smith, Arkansas’ secretary of health, told reporters in that state earlier in the day that the patient in question then came into contact with four other people who have since tested presumptive positive for COVID-19, including a medical school trainee who is a resident at two hospitals.

The suspicions expressed by Smith and Miravel would suggest COVID-19, a respiratory virus, was circulating in New Orleans well before Monday, when Louisiana reported its first presumptive positive patient.

Mardi Gras was on Feb. 25. And many people colloquially refer to the two weekends of Carnival parades preceding Fat Tuesday as Mardi Gras.

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Miravel said she couldn’t say exactly when the patient was in New Orleans for its Mardi Gras celebrations, discuss what areas the patient may have moved around in, or with whom the patient may have traveled to the city.

Neither New Orleans nor Louisiana officials immediately responded to a request for comment on Smith's comments.

At least 14 people have tested presumptive positive in Louisiana for COVID-19 as of Thursday afternoon, according to Louisiana’s public health office. Eleven are residents of New Orleans, and a 12th is a resident of adjacent Jefferson Parish.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said the numbers indicate there is "community spread" of the virus in the New Orleans area, meaning the virus is being transmitted locally rather than through travel.

Jefferson Parish declares state of emergency due to coronavirus concerns Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng has declared a state of emergency to improve the parish's response to the rapidly spreading coronavirus.

All presumed positive test results are awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. But authorities have repeatedly expressed confidence in the state-level testing that produced them.

Nationwide, COVID-19 had infected more than 1,200 people and killed at least 36 as of Thursday. The number of cases is expected to grow for the foreseeable future, according to officials, and events of all sizes are being canceled en masse.

Worldwide, estimates are more than 134,000 cases with nearly 5,000 deaths.

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