ARGUS reporter Laurie Churchman is stuck in America after boarding one of the last flights into the country before travel was restricted.

The USA has now reported 85 deaths and more than 4,600 cases of coronavirus.

Many states have applied strict ‘social distancing’ measures like those now in place in the UK. There are curfews, closures, and caps on crowds.

In New Orleans, the streets have fallen quiet.

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The Mississippi mist lifted around mid-morning.

New Orleans — the home of jazz, famed for its vibrant French Quarter and round-the-clock bar scene — was a ghost town.

Last night, I watched as police cars cleared the streets, ordering the last crowds in the city’s Bourbon Street strip to “go home”.

For the first time in years, many of New Orleans’s jazz bars fell silent as a 9pm curfew came into force.

Today, shops are shut and shutters are closed. The streets are empty.

The owners of my hostel have just told me to leave. They’re closing down and want everyone out.

I’m packing my bags, hoping to get out of the state before a lockdown, which experts are recommending and many here expect.

Local media is reporting that the centre of New Orleans is the second worst-hit district in the States.

But the full picture is far from clear — public testing for the virus has only just been introduced.

As the scale of the crisis becomes apparent in the US, several states have begun clamping down, using “social distancing” measures to keep people apart.

When I arrived in New York at the weekend, Broadway was shut, museums were closed and there were just 50 people milling about the usually heaving Times Square.

Cafés and restaurants had cut capacity and were seating customers at alternate tables in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.

In New York, people are worried. But New Orleans has been slow to catch up.

The city’s motto is “Let the good times roll”. Bar-goers in the Big Easy are defiant.

Last night, many were saying they believed the crisis would “blow over in a couple of weeks”.

But the city’s mayor was outraged to find people ignoring restrictions and used an emergency press conference to criticise them for partying and flouting limits on crowds.

Now, she has imposed tighter rules.

Most public spaces are closed and tonight will be the last time bars can open.

People in the city are torn.

Gail Payton runs a laundry in the French Quarter and has seen business slump.

“People still got to live their lives here in New Orleans,” she said.

“I got to wash my clothes. I got to go to the store and get to church. And I got to pay my rent.

“Now there are restaurants, bars, shops closing. What are people going to do?

“And how we going to pay our bills?”

In 2005, Gail was airlifted to safety from a rooftop when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

She said: “We’re prepared, sure we’re prepared. But it’s not like a hurricane.

“It’s not like you can just get scooped up off your roof to safety.

“And not everybody has the means to pick up and leave.

“We’re trying to hang on in here.

“We’re just taking it a day at a time.”