State 'tweaks' Avoyelles' pandemic numbers in Friday report

Trying to keep track of the various numbers related to COVID in Avoyelles Parish is literally like shooting at a moving target. New cases are added almost every day -- fortunately far fewer than earlier in the pandemic -- and on many days some are subtracted from one subgroup or the other.

Friday was one of those "tweak" days where there was minimal new activity. Out of 239 total test results, there was a net gain of eight additional COVID cases. However, although there were 190 lab tests, the parish's overall total in that group was reduced by four. That usually happens when someone was mistakenly included in Avoyelles' totals -- either because they live out of parish but got tested in Avoyelles or there address was mistakenly put down as Avoyelles. The state catches and corrects those errors as soon as possible.

Those looking for a dark cloud in the blue skies will focus on the 12 positive cases among 49 rapid results tests -- a positive rate of over 24 percent. Rapid result tests are not used in computing a parish's official weekly positive rate because they are more prone to false positives than the more precise molecular lab tests. Rapid tests are also usually given to people who either have symptoms or have reason to believe they have been exposed to COVID-19, which also increases the likelihood of more positive results. The Lab test pool includes more people seeking a test for precautionary reasons.

The parish's death toll remained at 123, but one "probable" COVID diagnosis was changed to "confirmed." There are now 115 confirmed COVID-related deaths and eight who are believed to have been "probable" for the disease.

As of Friday the parish's pandemic total was 4,141 cases with 3,627 "confirmed" and 514 "probable." The state totals were 455,541 cases and 10,336 deaths.