Avoyelles has 19 new COVID cases out of 397 tests

Avoyelles Parish had 19 new cases of COVID since Thursday, but no additional deaths, the Louisiana Department of Health reported today.

The LDH website noted there was a "data systems issue" and did not update information on additional deaths on Friday. The Friday report showed 397 test results with 375 molecular and 22 antigen tests. There were 15 positive molecular tests and four positive antigen tests.

The daily report reflected a COVID-positive rate of almost 5 percent -- considerably lower than the double-digit rates of the past two weeks. However, state health offiicials have said one-day reports are not reliable in gauging the presence of the virus in a community. The seven-day positive rate is what the state uses to measure a parish's progress against the disease.

As of Friday the parish's COVID totals were 3,137 cases (2,808/329) and 98 deaths (95/3). The next update will be Sunday since LDH does not post a daily report on Saturdays.