Kent Sepkowitz is a CNN medical analyst and a physician and infection control expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) The explosion of cases in New Orleans, Louisiana, has caught the attention of Covid watchers and doomsayers across the country. Less than two weeks ago, the Crescent City recorded less than 100 cases. By March 29 the number of infections in Orleans Parish reached 1,350, with 73 deaths. The fatalities per capita rivals that of New York City.

Though all eyes are on New Orleans, an equally alarming outbreak is occurring in a smaller city in the northwest of the state. Shreveport, near the border of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma — a region referred to locally as Ark-La-Tex (sorry, Oklahoma) — has about 200,000 people and sits across the Red River from Bossier City, with its population of 70,000. And right now, it is in the first stages of its own unique Covid-19 nightmare.

In recent days, the cases from these sister cities, which are in Caddo and Bossier parishes, have risen 30 or a 40 a day. As of March 29, the total for the two parishes sits at 275 overall, including five deaths. Incredibly, just a week ago , there were just 21 cases. Stated simply, this has the makings of serious trouble.

On the upbeat side, however, Dr. Puja Nambiar, an infectious disease specialist at the LSU Health Shreveport Medical School, told me that Shreveport experts have been able to work closely with the team at the Ochsner Health in New Orleans, adopting protocols and surge planning developed by experts a week ahead of the epidemic. Hopefully, that will help stem the tide.

No one is exactly certain why Shreveport has been hit. Though travel from New Orleans certainly is a possibility, it's a good five-hour drive to the Big Easy. Rather, some think that the Shreveport Mardi Gras, a several-day affair that usually draws between 250,000 and 400,000 participants annually might be the source, just as some think Mardi Gras may have contributed to kindling the outbreak in New Orleans. Some New Orleans infectious disease experts, however, think this theory overlooks an equally plausible explanation.

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