Avoyelles hit with three COVID deaths in Thursday update

Today's report from the state health department was a COVID update Avoyelles Parish had hoped it would never receive again. The COVID death toll in the parish rose by three. It is one of the highest death counts for the parish during the 17-month pandemic. There have now been 134 Avoyelleans whose deaths have been attributed to COVID since March 2020.

The Thursday report looked at 660 tests, with 646 lab tests and only 14 rapid response tests. There were 51 new cases.There were 41 positives in the 646 lab tests and 10 in the 14 rapid result tests.

The 17-month pandemic totals as of Thursday were 5,342 cases and 134 deaths. The state's totals were 607,228 cases and 11,462 deaths. There were 5,268 new cases and 54 deaths on Thursday. Statewide there were 2,901 hospitalized with 386 on ventilators.

Avoyelles Hospital in Marksville reported five COVID patients. Two of those are in ICU and one is on a ventilator.