Avoyelles Wednesday COVID update: 6 deaths, 34 cases, 4.2% daily positive rate

Part of Wednesday's COVID update from the state health department was good news for Avoyelles Parish -- positive rates seem to be dropping. Part of the report was shocking -- six additional deaths since the Tuesday update. It is the single-most number of deaths in any update since the first fatality was reported on March 31.

Avoyelles had 823 test results in the Wednesday update and only 34 new cases. Counting molecular and antigen tests together, the parish's total positive rate for the daily report was 4.25 percent. Counting only the 26 cases in the 743 molecular tests -- the results the state uses to determine the parish's official weekly positive rate -- the parish was at 3.3 percent. There were eight positives in the 80 antigen tests for a 10 percent rate.

All six fatalities were of victims whose illness had been identified by a molecular test.

The state also released the weekly positive rate, which saw Avoyelles improve from 7.1 percent for the seven-day period of Jan. 7-13 to 6.9 percent for Jan. 14-20.

Avoyelles' pandemic totals as of Wednesday were 3,424 total cases (3,031 molecular and 393 antigen) and 109 deaths (104/5). The state's totals on Wednesday were 392,416 cases (343,583/48,833) and 8,688 deaths (8,052/536).