More encouraging numbers in Avoyelles' fight against COVID

As has happened in several daily COVID updates this summer, Avoyelles Parish has fewer COVID cases today than it did yesterday. For some reason -- such as a person living in a neighboring parish but identifying with a nearby Avoyelles Parish town -- the state subtracted one case from the Crossroads Parish's pandemic total in the Friday report from the state health department.

Any report with more than 100 test results and one or less new cases is a clear "win" in the war on Coronavirus-2019, and Friday was a clear win for the parish..

The Friday report looked at 129 tests. There was the -1 net result in the 127 lab tests and no positives in the two rapid result tests. There was no additional death. The pandemic total as of Friday was 4,321 cases and 124 deaths. For the state, the totals were 479,521 cases and 10,723. The one-day statewide report saw 210 new cases out of 10,257 test results. That 2 percent positive rate is more than double Avoyelles' last official weekly rate.

While recent parish and statewide numbers have been encouraging, there is one number on the daily report from the state that reminds us of the cost of this 15-month pandemic -- that six more Louisianians died from the virus since the Thursday report.