Two more deaths raise Avoyelles COVID fatalities to 72

Thursday brought more bad news for Avoyelles Parish in its battle with COVID-19. A double-digit increase of 23 cases -- all confirmed by molecular tests -- was compounded with a report of two more COVID-related deaths since Wednesday's update.

Avoyelles Parish's pandemic totals as of Thursday were 2,295 cases -- 2162 "confirmed" and 133 "probable" identified with rapid-result antigen tests -- and 72 deaths (70 confirmed, 2 probable).

The state reported 2,542 new cases out of 27,594 test results and recorded another 40 deaths since the Wednesday update. The state's pandemic totals are 261,329 infections (243,435 / 17,894) and 6,724 (6426 / 298).

More than 93 percent of COVID tests in the state have been molecular tests in use since the beginning of the pandemic. In the beginning, it took a week or longer to receive results. That was later reduced to three or four days. A rapid-result antigen test became available a few months ago, with results within an hour or so. The test is primarily intended for those with symptoms and can yield false positives for those taking the test who may not have symptoms. It is less sensitive and slightly less reliable than the molecular tests. For that reason, the Centers for Disease Control has not been using antigen results in its COVID infection numbers. Many health professionals around the country are touting the antigen test as an inexpensive and efficient way to detect infections quickly and thus blunt the spread of COVID in communities.

Less than 3 percent of COVID tests in Avoyelles have been antigen tests with almost 5.8 percent of the parish's cases identified by that method. Almost 15 percent of antigen tests in Avoyelles Parish have yielded positive results. Since the beginning of the pandemic, less than 5 percent of molecular tests have been positive. The most obvious reasons for the difference in positive rates is that molecular tests are administered free in mobile testing sites while antigen tests are relatively expensive and so usually only taken by people who suspect they are ill or that they have been exposed to the virus.