LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — As confirmed cases of the new coronavirus increase in Louisiana, hospitals in the state’s southwest corner are concerned about the rising use of intensive care beds.

KPLC-TV reports that Lake Charles Memorial Hospital on Thursday had 19 patients in an ICU area established for COVID-19 patients. There were nine such patients on July 1.

“In just nine days, that number has more than doubled,” Dr. Clifford Courville said. “So you can anticipate what things may look like in nine more days, when we don’t have any patients that we can fit in our COVID ICU.”

Courville said the increasing load could force the hospital to shut down another ICU area to make room for more coronavirus patients.

“We will have to then consider closing down another ICU to fit more COVID patients, which will then involve perhaps eliminating any other elective or emergency surgeries that are being done,” Courville said.

Kevin Holland, CEO of CHRISTUS Ochsner St. Patrick in Lake Charles, said the facility has had record levels of COVID-19 patients in the past two to three weeks.

The five-parish state health department region that includes Lake Charles had 68 of 89 ICU beds in use as of Friday, according to department figures. The neighboring region that includes Lafayette and surrounding parishes had 150 ICU beds in use with 28 available, the department figures show.

Statewide, hospitalizations have been going up amid increasing numbers of infections reported as a result of continued testing.

On Friday, the statewide hospitalization rate climbed to 1,117, up from 1,042 on Thursday. The number of confirmed cases was more than 74,600, up from nearly 72,000 a day earlier. Twenty-five more deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to at least 3,272. The state says 46,334 people with COVID-19 are presumed recovered.