Louisiana's diagnosed cases of the new coronavirus climbed by another 407 to a total of 1,795 on Wednesday as test results continued to pour in by the thousands and parishes outside of the New Orleans area began to see sharp increases along with the city.

The overall increase marked the largest single-day jump in new cases, along with 19 new deaths associated with the virus, according to information released by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

And more worryingly, the number and rate of patients who required hospitalization jumped dramatically as well. Across the state, there are now 491 patients hospitalized who have tested positive for the coronavirus, 220 more than the day before. About 193 patients require ventilators, twice as many as on on Tuesday.

There are now 65 coronavirus-related deaths across the state.

The surge in cases was not unexpected as new testing capacity has been brought online to help confirm COVID-19 among residents. And while the New Orleans area — the epicenter of the state's outbreak so far — continued to see big jumps in the number of cases, Wednesday's numbers suggest that cases in other areas are now rising rapidly as well.

The coronavirus has now been found in 48 of Louisiana's 64 parishes, and 19 parishes have seen at least one death. As of Wednesday, 174 cases were identified outside of Orleans, Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes, compared to 233 new cases identified in those three parishes.

Caddo Parish alone made up almost a third of the new cases outside of the New Orleans area, doubling from 40 cases to more than 93. Calcasieu and Bossier parishes also saw their relatively small numbers of cases more than double.

It is not yet clear whether the increase in cases is due solely to a dramatic expansion of testing capacity, which will result in more infected people being identified, or if it signals increased community spread outside of the New Orleans area. Gov. John Bel Edwards has said in recent days that people across Louisiana should expect that the virus is already spreading in their communities.

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Still, New Orleans and its suburbs remain the main hotspots for new cases.

Orleans Parish saw its total cases increase by 152, almost as much as the total increase in parishes outside the metro area, and its death toll increase to 37. Jefferson Parish registered 68 new cases and one death in Wednesday's data.

In both those parishes, the cases increased by about 23% over the day before.

The 827 known cases in Orleans Parish and 359 in Jefferson Parish account for just over 66% of Louisiana's known cases.

Wednesday's results continued a rising line of cases, but followed an expected trend as waves of tests performed at commercial labs throughout Louisiana join statewide figures. Louisiana has more than doubled its known cases of the virus since Monday, with 958 of the 1,795 positive tests reported in the past three days. Those figures came as the LDH shifted from twice-daily updates to a single update at noon. The frequency shift likely skewed results from March 22, when just 74 new cases were reported.

NEW CASES BY DAY

SATURDAY, March 21 : 226

: 226 *SUNDAY, March 22 : 74

: 74 *MONDAY, March 23 (1st day of single report): 335

(1st day of single report): 335 TUESDAY, March 24 : 216

: 216 WEDNESDAY, March 25: 407

The surge of more than 1,000 new diagnosed positives since March 20 was not unexpected and came simultaneously with the surge in commercial testing.

As of March 19, only 899 tests had been completed with 392 diagnosed cases. As of Tuesday that number had skyrocketed to 11,451, of which 9,414 performed by commercial labs.

TOTAL TESTS COMPLETED EACH DAY

SATURDAY, March 21 : 1,371

: 1,371 *SUNDAY, March 22 : 196

: 196 *MONDAY, March 23 (1st day of single report): 2,450

(1st day of single report): 2,450 TUESDAY, March 24 : 2,655

: 2,655 WEDNESDAY, March 25: 2,848

Total known cases in Orleans Parish saw an increase of more than 22% from Tuesday to Wednesday, but also largely followed the statewide trend. Since commercial testing results began registering on March 20, known cases in the parish have more than tripled from that day's figure of 249. The rate of people infected statewide compared to total tests has fallen to below 16%, while Orleans Parish's account of total diagnosed cases statewide fell from 52% from to 46%.

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Editor's note: LDH lists 12 cases as "parish under investigation.

Parish-by-parish breakdown

Cases have been reported in 41 of 64 parishes (see full breakdown by parish here). Here's the number of cases (deaths) in the metro area as of noon Tuesday, based on LDH data:

Orleans : 827 (37 deaths)

: 827 (37 deaths) Jefferson : 359 (7)

: 359 (7) St. Tammany : 67 (1)

: 67 (1) St. Bernard : 23 (1)

: 23 (1) St. Charles : 17 (1)

: 17 (1) St. John the Baptist : 27 (2)

: 27 (2) Lafourche : 18 (1)

: 18 (1) Plaquemines : 9

: 9 Tangipahoa : 5

: 5 Terrebonne : 15

: 15 St. James: 14 (1)

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All information from from the LDH website.

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