Recent numbers could indicate Omicron is retreating

It is way too early to hope the recent Omicron wave is starting to ebb, but local numbers combined with reports that the rate of new cases is falling in other states offers reason to hope.

In Avoyelles there were 165 more cases since Tuesday. That is a total of 276 since last Friday. There was also another COVID-related death in the Wednesday report, raising the parish's death toll to 181.

While having a triple-digit increase in a potentially fatal disease can never be considered "good" news, compared to projections that the parish would be seeing over 280 new cases per day for this and next week, it is at least encouraging news that the situation may not be as dire as was feared.

The parish's pandemic totals as of Wednesday were 9,389 cases and 181 deaths. Statewide totals since March 2020 were 1,082,716 cases with 15,246 deaths.