Avoyelles adds 254 cases, one death in past week to COVID pandemic totals

THURSDAY UPDATE:
129 deaths (plus 1)
4948 cases (56 new cases since Wednesday)

ORIGINAL STORY:
The numbers speak for themselves. In the past week, from July 28 to Aug. 4, Avoyelles Parish has had 254 new cases of COVID-19, with total cases during the almost 17 months of the pandemic now at 4,892. The parish also had an additional death, raising the death toll since March 2020 to 128.

The "risk" map for the state is now entirely red, the code for "highest risk." Avoyelles official weekly positive rate, for July 22-28, is 7.4 percent -- almost double the 3.8 percent rate it had for July 15-21. For the most recent Wednesday-to-Wednesday numbers, the parish's overall positive rate is 10.1 percent. However, the rate for molecular lab tests is 7.4 percent. The positive rate for rapid response tests is almost 20.6 percent.

The state health department reported Wednesday that 90 percent of new COVID cases diagnosed from July 22-28 were of individuals who were not fully vaccinated. The unvaccinated accounted for 90 percent of hospitalizations. A disturbing figure from the state is that 84 percent of deaths in that time period were unvaccinated individuals. That means 10 percent of new infections, 10 percent of hospitalizations and 16 percent of deaths were victims who were fully vaccinated.

The numbers provide two messages. The first is that not being immunized against the disease is especially risky at this time. The second is that the vaccine, while still largely effective in providing protection from infection -- especially serious complication cases -- the Delta variant may be more resistant than had been hoped since the percentage of fully immunized victims who have died or been hospitalized is significantly higher than previously projected numbers. A recent national study on "breakthrough" infections of vaccinated individuals indicated they made up less than 1 percent of recent COVID cases.

Avoyelles has had 29.5 percent of its residents fully vaccinated and 34 percent fully or partially vaccinated. That compares to the state percentages of 37 percent fully vaccinated and almost 43 percent with at least one dose of a vaccine.