Patrick Madden

New Orleans is a city of social closeness — of parades, of sweaty dance floors, of social clubs, of tourist attractions teeming with bodies.

And now it’s a city with the highest rate of deaths from COVID-19 per capita.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued what she called a "stay home mandate" in a press conference late Friday afternoon.

Residents must stay home whenever possible, going out only for critical needs, she said. "We are telling our people and businesses to stay home."

In response to a question near the end of the press conference, the mayor said, "It is a shelter-in-place."

New Orleans is emerging as the next major hotspot for COVID-19.

A breakdown of known coronavirus cases at the county level appears to show Orleans Parish — home to New Orleans — far outpacing other jurisdictions in COVID-19 rate per capita in the U.S.