Wednesday COVID in Avoyelles: 87 tests, 16 cases, 1 death

When only a small number of tests are included in a daily COVID update, it is impossible to use those results to get a picture of the virus' presence in the community. That was the case in Wednesday's report for Avoyelles Parish.

There were 16 new cases out of the 87 tests in Wednesday's report. All 16 were among the 85 molecular tests. There were only two rapid result tests in the group with no positives. There was an additional death, raising the parish's COVID death toll to 117 (111 "confirmed" and six "probable"). The small test group had a positive rate of almost 19 percent.

Had that rate come from a group of 1,000 tests instead of less than 100, it would have taken the glow off of the parish's improved weekly positive rate. The official positive rate, based on the week of Jan. 28--Feb. 3, was 3.2 percent, down from 4.9 percent the week before.

Avoyelles' risk rating is still classified as "highest," and the parish is still colored red on the state's COVID map. However, neighboring Catahoula's risk rating is now "high" and West Feliciana -- which adjoins us at Turnbull Island -- has improved to a moderate risk.

Avoyelles has had a total of 3,576 cases (3,134/442) since its first case was diagnosed on March 21, 2020..

The state pandemic totals as of Wednesday were 414,687 cases (359,179/55,508) and 9,212 deaths (8,594/618).