NEW ORLEANS - The state says it will not release new case data on COVID-19 Saturday due to a scheduled power outage at the office building where the Department of Health tracks statewide virus numbers.

The hold-up is due to a planned outage at Benson Tower, where LDH's New Orleans offices  are located, on June 27. State officials say the outage will keep the department's servers offline until later that afternoon.

Due to the technical hurdle, the state will not adjust its COVID-19 dashboard Saturday and will resume its daily data updates Sunday. It's unclear whether the state will report Saturday and Sunday's data independently once the servers are back up.

The state has reported a surge in cases this week, including 1,300 new cases Friday. You can read more on Louisiana's current coronavirus statistics here: https://www.wbrz.com/news/la-reports-more-than-1-300-new-coronavirus-cases-friday-hospitalizations-increase-again