Avoyelles hit with additional COVID death, 12 new cases in Tuesday report

There was nothing "good" about Tuesday's COVID update for Avoyelles Parish.

First, the parish suffered its 126th fatality of the pandemic. Next, it had a one-day double-digit increase of 12, which would be 30 on a per-100,000 population comparison. The third strike was that there was only 92 tests in the report, when health officials feel more comfortable with at least 300-500 to get a clearer picture of COVID's presence in the community. That leads to the fourth bit of bad news, a one-day positive rate of 13 percent overall, of over 14 percent in 63 lab tests and over 10 percent in 29 rapid result tests.

Avoyelles is not getting hit as hard as the eastern sector of the state -- the "toe of the boot" -- but the parish is in dire need of a turnaround to keep the Health Department from painting it "red" on the state risk map.

The state will release its new weekly positive rates and other status changes on Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, the parish's pandemic totals since March 2020 are 4,486 cases and 126 deaths. Statewide there have been 501,494 cases and 10,861 deaths.