Wednesday sees 83 new COVID cases in Avoyelles

It may be time to dust off the "S" word -- "surge" -- when referring to the current status of COVID in Avoyelles Parish. Or, if you prefer, "fifth wave."

The midweek report for the parish was a shocker, with 83 new cases added to the COVID pandemic totals. There were 852 test results reviewed in the one-day report, which reflects a 9.7 percent positive rate for that sample.

The parish's official weekly positive rate, based on lab test results for the week of Dec. 16-22, is 3.8 percent. That is more than triple the 1.1 percent rate for Dec. 9-15.

For those waiting for the "good news" in the report, there were no additional COVID-related deaths in the parish.

While it isn't really "good" news, Avoyelles is still faring the current wave better than the state overall. The state had a one-day increase of 9.378 cases and five deaths in the Wednesday report, which is a 20.4 percent overall positive rate.

Looking at the totals from reports from Dec. 22-Dec. 29, there were 1,856 tests with 140 new infections identified. The latest report accounted for most of the new cases and a large portion of the total tests.

The online COVID Act Now said Avoyelles is currently having 25.3 new cases per 100,000 population per day, compared to the state's 66.1. The parish's infection rate is 1.2 while the state's overall rate is 1.6. The state's positive rate is 15.7 percent while the parish's is 5 percent.

The infection rate indicates the number of active COVID cases is slightly rising in the parish and rising more significantly in other areas of the state. A 1.0 infection rate indicates that one new case occurs as one case ends, also explained as every COVID patient is infecting one person.

The only statistic where Avoyelles trails the state is in vaccinations, with the 57.2 percent of the state's population having at least one dose of vaccine while that percentage is 50.6 in Avoyelles, according to Act Now's analysis.
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