Mid-week COVID update for Avoyelles: five new cases, two deaths

The number of new cases per day continues to fall in Avoyelles Parish, but the death toll from those infected during the height of the summer surge continues to rise.

Wednesday's update from the Louisiana Department of Health reported only five new cases out of 380 tests reviewed over the previous 24 hours. There were also two more COVID-related deaths since Tuesday's update.

Wednesday is also the day the state releases the current official weekly positive rate for the parishes. Avoyelles' rate improved from 7.6 for the Sept. 2-8 period to 4.8 percent for Sept. 9-15. That statistic considers only the molecular lab test results and excludes results of the rapid result tests. Lab test results are categorized as "confirmed" while RRTs are considered "probable" for the virus.

In the Wednesday-to-Wednesday comparison, using reports of Sept. 15 and Sept. 22, Avoyelles conducted 2,158 tests -- 1,811 lab and 347 RRT. There were 86 new cases (41 molecular, 45 RRT) and seven additional deaths (five diagnosed with lab tests, two with RRTs).

As of Wednesday, Avoyelles' pandemic totals were 6,880 cases and 170 deaths. The state totals were 732,005 cases and 13,657 deaths.