Avoyelles has triple-digit increase in COVID cases Friday

Not counting a report in February that included over 200 COVID cases in Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport, Avoyelles Parish had its worst single-day report of the pandemic Friday with 103 new cases. The Friday report also pushed the total number of COVID cases in Avoyelles Parish over the past 17 months over 5,000.

For those hoping the cause of this report was a repeat of the February shocker, it wasn't. RLCC has only six COVID cases at this time -- all staff members, which indicates they contracted the virus in their home community and not from the inmate population.

Good news? There were no additional deaths in Friday's report, leaving Avoyelles' death toll at 129. Also, with 906 tests in this report, the level of testing is sufficient to provide an accurate picture of COVID's presence in the parish.

Bad news? It's not a pretty picture.

The overall one-day positive rate is 11.3 percent for Friday. There were 68 positive results among 701 molecular lab tests in the Friday report, for a 9.7 percent positive rate. In the pool of 205 rapid result tests, there were 35 diagnosed infections to yield a 17 percent positive rate.

The increased number of cases is obviously due to an increased number of tests. While the large number of new cases over the past few days is disturbing, the increase in testing is a good thing because it means more infections are being identified, which in turn means more people are knowing they need to isolate which will reduce the spread of the disease.

The rapid result antigen tests -- hailed last fall as a much-needed "early warning system" despite a slight chance for "false positives" -- seems to be making up a larger percentage of the overall tests in the past two weeks. Lab tests take two or three days for results to be reported. Antigen test results are ready within an hour.

Officials have said many people experiencing symptoms or who know they have been exposed will opt for the quick response test to get an immediate answer to their question as to whether they have COVID. This increases the number of positive tests in that group. Because of concerns with false positives raised early in the pandemic, the state health department does not use the antigen test results in determining a parish's official positive rate.

As of Friday, Avoyelles' pandemic totals were 5,051 cases and 129 deaths. The state totals were 573,903 cases and 11,210 deaths. Statewide on Friday there were 6,116 new cases and 48 deaths. Many hospitals are out of room with 2,421 COVID patients hospitalized and 277 on ventilators.