BATON ROUGE - Governor John Bel Edwards announced Louisiana will enforce a new mask mandate as hospitals are pushed to the brink by a wave of new coronavirus cases.

The governor said that anyone over the age of 5 will be required to wear a mask when gathering with others inside until September. The order is for everyone regardless of vaccination status and begins Wednesday.

Anyone on a school campus - k-12 or college - will be covered by the mask mandate. 

Last week, the governor urged Louisiana residents to wear face coverings indoors but stopped short of announcing a mask requirement. On Friday, Edwards said he would review coronavirus data over the weekend and have more to say on a potential mandate Monday.

Over the span of a month, Louisiana's coronavirus hospitalizations skyrocketed from 259 at the start of July to 1,740 on Friday. The surge has left many hospitals asking for help from the state to handle the influx of new patients. 

The state released new data on coronavirus infections at noon Monday, just hours before the briefing. Over the weekend, there were 11,109 new cases reported to the state and 27 additional deaths. Hundreds more were checked into hospitals, with 1,984 now hospitalized with the virus as of Monday afternoon. 

You can view the most recent numbers below.