Thursday COVID report: 4 deaths, 36 cases in 817 tests

It is hard to be encouraged by a decrease in the positive rate of a daily batch of COVID test results in Avoyelles Parish when the first number you see on the report is that there were four more deaths since Wednesday's update.

The Thursday update from the Louisiana Department of Health showed there were 36 positive results in 817 tests for the daily report. That is a positive rate of 4.4 percent. There were 633 lab tests that diagnosed 14 infections, which is only 2.2 percent positive. The rapid result tests found 22 COVID cases out of 184 tests, for a positive rate of almost 12 percent. The state uses only the lab test results to determine a parish's "official" weekly positive rate.

As we have noted before, the statistic of deaths is a "trailing indicator" of the presence of COVID in a community because the fatal infection occurred in the past while the number of cases and the positive rate in the recent tests reflect the current conditions in the parish.

While recent reports give hope that the level of COVID in the parish is declining -- and that certainly has not been verified -- that is no comfort for the realization that family, friends, neighbors and co-workers continue to die from the disease.

As of Thursday, Avoyelles has had 6,635 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and 157 deaths connected to the virus. Statewide there were 710,401 cases and 12,992 deaths.

While it is true the vast majority of recent infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been of unvaccinated individuals, the health department's monitoring of that statistic also revealed that those who have been vaccinated made up a larger percentage of recent cases, deaths and hospitalizations for the period of Aug. 26-Sept. 1 than they did in the week prior.

In that week, 11 percent of new infections and hospitalizations and 16 percent of those who died had been vaccinated.

Health officials continue to emphasize the unvaccinated are significantly more likely -- one study said 29 times more likely -- to be infected than someone who has been vaccinated.