BATON ROUGE, La. - Gov. John Bel Edwards has issued a statewide "stay at home" directive, ordering all 4.6 million people in Louisiana to stay at home starting at 5 p.m. on Monday unless they're performing an essential task like getting food or medicine.
Workers in grocery stores, pharmacies, doctors' offices and other critical infrastructure are exempt from the governor's directive.
"The bottom line is we are in a race against time when it comes to this coronavirus and it's rapid spread in Louisiana," Edwards said Sunday.
New York, California, Illinois and some cities have issued similar shelter in place or stay at home orders in the last few days. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell had issued a similar order for that city two days ago.
As of Sunday, coronavirus infections in Louisiana have climbed to more than 830. Twenty people in the state have died of COVID-19, state health officials said.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report