Avoyelles Parish Nov. 25 COVID update: weekly positive rate 5.1%, one additional death

The day before Thanksgiving and the first day of the new "Phase 2," Avoyelles Parish was given a very unpleasant daily and weekly update on its battle with COVID-19.

Avoyelles ended its two-week streak with no additional deaths, as the state reported a COVID-related fatality in its Wednesday update for the parish. That raises the number of confirmed deaths to 66 with two probable COVID-related deaths.

The total number of COVID cases since the beginning of the pandemic in March is now at 2,052 -- 1966 confirmed and 86 probable. That was an increase of 8 confirmed and 7 probable cases in the Wednesday test results.

The state health department also released its updated weekly positive figures. The positive rate for Nov. 3-11 was adjusted from 4.9 percent to 5.1 percent -- probably due to placing positive results from a backlog of tests in that week. The positive rate for Nov. 12-18 was also 5.1 percent. Those numbers put the parish above the 5 percent threshold for less restrictive COVID-control measures.

Statewide there were 1,234 additional cases and 27 deaths since the Tuesday report, raising the total number of pandemic cases to 225,638 with 6,350 deaths. As of Wednesday there were 1,077 COVID patients hospitalized with 116 of those on ventilators.