Thursday COVID update for Avoyelles: 4 cases, no deaths, 275 tests

Thursday's COVID update for Avoyelles Parish had more tests and fewer new cases than the midweek report had, which was good news for the parish.

There were four new cases out of 275 COVID tests reviewed for the Thursday update. That reflects an overall positive rate of 1.4 percent for that report. The rate for lab tests was just over 1 percent and the rate for rapid result tests was 2.3 percent.

The pandemic totals for Avoyelles as of Thursday are 7,437 infections with 181 fatalities. The state's 21-month totals as of Thursday were 779,567 cases and 14,918 deaths.

As we hold our breath and wait for Omicron to show up, the latest reports are a mixed bag. On one hand, the number of identified cases of the variant -- most categorized as "probable" at this point -- has gone from one on Dec. 3 to 93 as earlier this week. The good news is that none of those are in Avoyelles or Central Louisiana. Of the 93, 81 are in the New Orleans area. The bad news is that healthcare officials have said they expect the variant is more evident than the lab identification reports would have us believe.

Health officials in the United Kingdom and South Africa report that if Omicron arrives in the community, it will make its presence known quickly and dramatically. The graph charting new cases in those two countries is almost a 90-degree due-north jump when the new variant starts working its "magic" as a super-contagious variant of the virus.

Officials are still saying that information gleaned to date indicates Omicron is not more severe or lethal than previous variants, and may even be milder. However, it makes up for that bit of good news by being able to infect some fully vaccinated and reinfect some who have had COVID earlier in the pandemic.

The state health department is monitoring the status of Omicron in the state.