Avoyelles risk level downgraded from 'highest' to 'high'

Avoyelles had nothing but good news from the Louisiana Department of Health in Wednesday's COVID-19 update.

Best news first: Avoyelles has gone from being a "highest risk" red parish on the state map to an orange "high risk" parish. That may not sound like such good news, but it is.

The parish's weekly positive rate fell to 1.6 percent for the most recent seven-day period surveyed, Feb. 25-March 3. That is an improvement from the 4.9 percent rate for Feb. 18-24 and a vast improvement over the state-leading 20 percent of Feb. 11-17, which was sparked by a sudden outbreak of over 200 COVID cases at the state prison in Cottonport during that period.

The parish actually had its pandemic total reduced by a net of one in Wednesday's test results. The state took away two molecular test positives that had been credited to Avoyelles. There were 120 molecular tests with no new case reported. There was one rapid result positive out of 31 tests in Wednesday's report.

Avoyelles pandemic totals as of Wednesday were 3,956 cases (3,469/487) and 118 deaths (111/7). The state's totals for the pandemic are 435,514 cases and 9,812 deaths.