Avoyelles' first COVID report of 2022: 163 new cases over four-day holiday weekend

Another long holiday weekend and another "sticker shock" moment for the pandemic that seems will never end.

In the four days of COVID test results reviewed since Dec. 30, the Monday (Jan. 3) report for Avoyelles Parish noted 163 new cases in 1,543 tests for an overall positive rate of 10.5 percent. While the per-day rate averages almost 41, compared to a two-day average of 77 for last Wednesday and Thursday, those two reports also averaged about 850 each. Because New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and a Sunday are in those four days, the per-day average of tests was less than half of the previous two reports' test totals.

The statewide positive rate for the weekend update was 25.2 percent. After a pandemic-high 12,467 new cases on Thursday, the four-day holiday update reported 31,161 new cases -- less than 8,000 per day average -- out of 123,530 test results. There were 15 additional deaths in the state in the Monday report.

The only positive so far in the "Omicron wave" has been the lack of any additional COVID-related deaths in Avoyelles Parish.

Avoyelles begins the new year with a 21-month total of 7,842 infections and 181 fatalities during the pandemic. The state totals are 859,856 cases and 15,001 deaths.