Friday COVID update for Avoyelles: two cases out of 300 tests

On the COVID front, Avoyelles Parish residents can breathe a little easier -- but they still need do that breathing six feet away from other people and while wearing a mask after having been vaccinated, just to be super-safe.

Friday's COVID update for the parish was almost a "perfect game," coming only two cases shy of a shutout. The only thing that would have made the report better would have been if the results were for 3,000 tests instead of 300.

Also, the two new cases diagnosed in Friday's report were in the day's 42 rapid result tests. There were no cases found in the 258 lab tests. There were no additional deaths.

Readers should be reminded that we have written this kind of report before when numbers dipped not only to single-digit daily increases in cases but in single-digit weekly increases.

Healthcare professionals caution that now is not the time to relax protective measures, but rather time to double down on them to make sure there won't be a "fifth wave" to mark the virus' second anniversary in December, when it first surfaced in China.

The totals for Avoyelles since March 2020 are 6,996 cases and 175 deaths. Statewide totals for the pandemic period are 747,329 cases and 14,173 deaths.