Avoyelles weekend COVID report: 101 new cases, no deaths

Avoyelles Parish added 101 COVID cases to its growing number for the 17-month pandemic over the weekend, but had no additional deaths in the virus' "fourth wave."

As of Monday, the parish's overall totals since March 2020 were 5,152 infections and 129 deaths. Rapid result tests are becoming more popular and yielding most of the new cases. The Monday report which looks at test results from Saturday, Sunday and Monday reviewed 1,124 tests. There were 42 positives in the 723 lab tests, which take two or three days for results. There were 59 new cases diagnosed in 401 rapid tests, with results reported within an hour.

In the past week, from the Aug. 2 report to the Aug. 9 report, Avoyelles Parish has had 5,953 COVID tests with 583 new cases -- 330 out of 4,512 lab tests and 253 in 1,441 antigen tests. The death toll rose from 127 to 129 during that week.

The state health department's updated vaccination rate report still shows Avoyelles with less than 30 percent of its population fully vaccinated but with 36.6 percent having at least one shot. That last number indicates a recent boost in the number of individuals taking their first shot of the two-shot treatment of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a one-shot immunization.

Statewide the numbers were 590,446 cases and 11,260 deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020. The state had 16,541 new cases in the three-day report and suffered 50 COVID-related deaths. There were 2,720 Louisianians hospitalized with COVID. Of those, 318 were on ventilators.