BY MEGAN WYATT | Staff writer

Lafayette hospitals have long had emergency surge plans in place to make way for an influx of patients during a mass casualty event, but they've never had to put those plans in motion before the new coronavirus was detected in Acadiana.

BY GORDON RUSSELL | Staff writer

The cluster of coronavirus deaths that began in New Orleans and spread to Jefferson and St. John the Baptist parishes has now made its way up and down the Mississippi River, with 13 Louisiana parishes now among the 50 U.S. counties with the highest per-capita death rates from the virus.

LESLIE WESTBROOK | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Neil Thibeaux got a little help in celebrating his 4th birthday Tuesday morning as friends, family, and a Lafayette fire truck rolled by his home. Some made signs and others work masks and costumes for the occasion. "It makes my heart happy," Neil told his mother after the parade passed. 

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR | Staff writer

The spread of the new coronavirus in Acadiana may be slowing, the latest data from the state health department suggests.

By SAM KARLIN | Staff writer

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Tuesday implored residents to continue to stay home as much as possible as the state sees data on the coronavirus outbreak promising enough to cause officials to say the New Orleans region is no longer on track to run out of hospital beds and ventilators in the next two weeks.

BY GORDON RUSSELL | Staff writer

The cluster of coronavirus deaths that began in New Orleans and spread to Jefferson and St. John the Baptist parishes has now made its way up and down the Mississippi River, with 13 Louisiana parishes now among the 50 U.S. counties with the highest per-capita death rates from the virus.

BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer

Auto insurance companies in Louisiana ought to follow the lead of Allstate and Geico in reducing rates, state Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said Tuesday.

BY MARK BALLARD | Capitol Bureau editor

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards is doing a better job than President Donald Trump in handling the novel coronavirus, according to a survey conducted Friday and Saturday of 1,023 Louisiana voters and released Tuesday by a Democratic-leaning pollster from North Carolina.

BY KEVIN FOOTE | Staff writer

The truth is it’s still early in the process.