COVID count continues climbing in Avoyelles: 58 cases in 276 tests

Wednesday's COVID update from the state was a mixed bag for Avoyelles. The trend of high double-digit daily increases continued, the one-day positive rate was over 21 percent and the official weekly positive rate for lab tests rose to 5.7 percent for tests reviewed from Dec. 23-29. The positive rate for lab tests reviewed from Dec. 16-22 was 4 percent.

Primarily due to there being only 276 tests in this report, the parish's total pandemic case count did not top 8,000. In a good but unusual turn, the parish's death toll was reduced by one. Avoyelles' pandemic totals as of Wednesday ate 7,991 cases and 180 deaths. The state totals as of Wednesday were 879,549 cases and 15,027 deaths. There were 10,403 new cases and 11 deaths in the state in the Wednesday report.

From Wednesday, Dec. 29 to Wednesday, Jan. 5, there were 2,934 COVID tests reviewed with 383 new cases identified in Avoyelles Parish -- an overall positive rate, counting lab tests and rapid result tests, of 13 percent.