Avoyelles gets a better COVID report Thursday: 76 new cases, no deaths

Avoyelles Parish's COVID update for Thursday was a little less bad than the Wednesday report. There were more tests administered and fewer positive results. That is a "win" in most people's books.

There were 62 first-time COVID infections in the 605 tests reviewed for the Thursday report from the Louisiana Department of Health. There were 14 reinfections, for a total increase of 76 active cases of COVID in the parish since the Wednesday report. There were only 490 tests reviewed on Wednesday when there were 95 first-time victims and 19 reinfections, for a total increase of 114 cases.

There were no additional COVID-related deaths in the parish.

It is a testament to the Omicron variant's effect on our collective psyche when we find anything under 100 new cases a day as cause to celebrate. In the world of COVID statistics, 100 cases a day in 40,000-resident Avoyelles would be considered 250 cases per day per 100,000 people when compared with other communities. For Avoyelles to drop below 200 cases/day/100,000, the total number of new cases would have to be 40.

As of Thursday, Avoyelles Parish's 22-month pandemic totals were 10,460 individuals infected with 736 reinfections for a total of 11,196 cases of COVID. There has been 189 COVID-related deaths in the parish since March 2020. The state totals were 1,185,174 cases and 15,841 deaths.