Avoyelles three-day COVID update: 7 positives out of 138 lab tests

It is hard not to hold one's breath in anxious anticipation while waiting for the three-day COVID pandemic update on Monday. Will it be a no-show Monday with few tests and possibly no new cases? Will three days' worth of results give the parish a double-digit jump? Then there's always the worry that another victim has died from the virus.

For Avoyelles, the Monday report was somewhat nondescript. There were 157 total tests, but the only ones that matter in this report are the 138 molecular tests. There were seven positive results in that group. Seven cases in three days sounds good -- and compared to the not-so-distant past, it is. However, that result translates into a 5 percent positive rate for this report. With Avoyelles' positive rate inching up a little bit every week for the past four weekly reports, the parish does not need to see positive rates over 1 percent for the next few days. To remind readers, the state uses only the lab tests in determining the official weekly positive rate. The rapid result tests usually have a higher positive rate, but are deemed only "probable" for the virus.

The parish's overall number of cases declined by two over the three-day period due to the state removing two rapid result test positives from the parish's total.There were no additional deaths.

As of Monday, the almost 14-month total for the parish was 4,183 cases (3,660 "confirmed" by lab tests, 523 "probable" due to rapid result diagnosis) and 123 deaths (115 / 8).