BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's chief health officer warned that stricter COVID mitigation measures could be on the way if the state doesn't stem its latest surge in the coming weeks.

Dr. Joseph Kanter made the comments to the Louisiana Board of Regents during a special meeting Tuesday morning where it approved new sexual harassment policies on campuses. 

Kanter said the state's hospitals are heading toward a "catastrophic situation" if coronavirus don't begin to taper off in the next two weeks.

"I would expect more aggressive mitigation measures to be considered if we do not peak within the one or two-week timeframe," Kanter said.

On Aug. 4, the state re-imposed its mask mandate at the order of Governor John Bel Edwards.

Last year Louisiana imposed curfews and varying degrees of capacity limits on businesses throughout the different stages of the pandemic. The governor has not said whether he plans to revisit such restrictions if the virus continues to spread. 

As of Tuesday, more than 2,800 patients were hospitalized with COVID throughout Louisiana. It's more hospitalizations than the state has reported at any other point in the pandemic.

The state also reported 93 additional coronavirus deaths that same day, the most in a single day since Jan. 8.