Another double-digit day: 11 new cases

Avoyelles ended this week much the way it started it -- with a double-digit increase reported in a state health department update on COVID in the parish.

After a Thursday report that saw only three positive results -- all in rapid result tests -- out of a total of almost 300 tests, the parish was hit with an 11-case increase out of 372 tests. Of those seven positives were in the 327 lab tests and four were among 45 RRTs. For the weekly reports covering Saturday to Friday, the parish had 33 new cases and no additional deaths from COVID.

While that is approximately 4.7 cases per day for the seven days in that reporting period (Saturday-Friday), statisticians see it as 11.75 cases a day per 100,000 population.

There was also a report released that puts Avoyelles Parish in one of the five "undervaccinated clusters" in the South that some are saying puts the entire nation at risk for a resurgence of the pandemic. One newscaster explained it as a fire that is dying down suddenly coming across a rich source of kindling and regaining its former intensity.

The counties and parishes in the five clusters that stretch from Georgia to Texas and as far north as Southern Missouri have an average vaccination rate of 28 percent of their population. The national average is 48 percent. The clusters' combined population is 15 million, and 92 percent of the counties/parishes have less than 100,000 residents.

The problem epidemic experts see is that these pockets of opportunity for the COVID virus can spread the disease and could result in more variants. So far, the variants that have cropped up over the past year respond well to the vaccine for the original COVID-19. However, some virologists fear it is just a matter of time before there is a variant that is resistant to the vaccines currently approved for use to protect against COVID.

As of Friday, Avoyelles' pandemic totals 2343 4,386 cases and 125 deaths. The state's totals were 487,558 cases and 10,781 deaths.