Avoyelles sees 105 new COVID cases in Thursday report

Avoyelles Parish had its first triple-digit increase of the new wave Thursday, with 105 new cases identified in 923 tests reviewed.

Recent restrictions on rapid result tests that allow testing only those with symptoms or who have been exposed to an active case of COVID are reflected in the daily data. There were 286 RRTs in Thursday's report, with 67 showing positive for COVID. There were 637 lab tests that identified 38 new cases.

Those numbers reflect an overall one-day positive rate of 11.3 percent, almost 6 percent for lab tests and 23 percent among rapid result tests. That compares to the state's one-day report overall positive rate of 22 percent.

The state set another daily increase record with 14,077 new cases. The state had 12 additional deaths in Thursday's report.

Avoyelles death toll was adjusted again to reduce the parish's fatalities to 179 -- the second day in a row that a death has been subtracted from the parish's totals. These adjustments mean a victim who was thought to reside in Avoyelles at the time of their COVID-related death was actually living in another parish at the time. The deaths are assigned to the victim's place of residence and not necessarily where they died.

Every parish in the state is now colored deep red on the health department map, indicating they are "high risk" for the parish. The online COVID Act Now raised Avoyelles' risk rating to "severe" in its Thursday report.

Comparing Avoyelles to the state overall, Act Now's analysis found Avoyelles with 136.3 new cases per day per 100,000 population and the state with 194.6. The parish's infection rate bypassed the state average, 1.77 to 1.68. Avoyelles has a much lower positive rate over the past two weeks, 8.3 percent to 28.6 percent. The parish trails the state in vaccinations. Avoyelles has 43.7 percent of its people fully vaccinated and 51 percent with at least one dose of vaccine. The state gas 50,5 percent fully vaccinated and 57.8 percent with at least one dose of vaccine.

From another data source, the New York Times online analysis website reported that Avoyelles Hospital is at 86 percent ICU occupancy with two COVID patients. Louisiana overall is at 73 percent ICU capacity which is still below the national average of 77 percent.

Act Now's national risk map shows all but five states as "severe risk." As of that report, Texas, Maine, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho were rated "very high risk."

Avoyelles' pandemic totals as of Thursday were 8,096 infections with 179 fatalities. The state totals were 893,626 cases with 15,038 deaths.