Avoyelles has encouraging COVID update on Tuesday

Any way you look at Tuesday's COVID update from the state health department was a "win" for Avoyelles Parish.

First, there were no additional deaths. That was a welcome relief from recent reports with multiple deaths added to the parish's pandemic total. Next, there were only 15 new cases -- 12 "confirmed" and three "probable." Third, the positive results came out of a group of 1,237 tests. Fourth, the report reflects a one-day total positive rate of 1.2 percent, only 1 percent among the molecular tests and just over 5 percent of the rapid result antigen tests.

Aside from a report of more than 1,000 tests with zero positives, Avoyelles couldn't have received a much better report. The question now is whether this is the start of a light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel trend or a "luck-of-the-draw" freak occurrence.

As of Tuesday, Avoyelles' almost 11-month totals show 3,492 total cases (3,080/412) and 114 deaths (108/6). The state's totals were 404,194 cases (352,277/51,917) and 8,953 deaths (8,375/578).