Five-day report shows 148 new COVID cases, one additional death in Avoyelles

With no update on COVID cases since last Friday, Wednesday's report from the Louisiana Department of Health was expected to have high numbers. For Avoyelles Parish, the numbers were high but not as high as expected.

The parish had only 1,442 test results reviewed for the five days of Aug. 28 to Sept. 1. There were 148 COVID cases diagnosed in those tests, for a five-day positive rate of 10.2 percent. There was one additional COVID-related death. That represents almost 30 cases per day. That five-day report compares to Avoyelles' 1,434 tests total in the Wednesday and Thursday reports with 116 new cases -- an 8 percent positive rate reflecting 58 cases a day. There was also one additional death over those two days.

The Wednesday-to-Wednesday totals for Avoyelles showed 264 new cases and two additional deaths. That provides an overall 7-day positive rate of 9 percent with an average of almost 38 cases per day. Had the events leading up to, including and following Hurricane Ida not reduced the number of tests, the positive rate would likely have been lower but the number of cases and the cases-per-day figures would probably be higher.

The parish's pandemic totals as of Wednesday were 6,395 cases and 141 deaths. Statewide totals were 692,176 cases and 12,582 deaths. Over the five days since the last update on Friday, the state has 12,380 cases and 223 deaths. That was an average of 2,476 and almost 44 additional deaths per day over that five-day period.