Wednesday COVID update for Avoyelles: 28 cases, one death

Wednesday was, unfortunately, a "normal" day in Avoyelles Parish's war with COVID-19.

The parish had 28 new cases -- 22 identified by molecular lab tests and six by rapid test diagnosis. There was another death, identified as "confirmed COVID" by a molecular test. These results raised the parish's pandemic totals to 2,398 total tests (2252 confirmed/146 probable) and 77 deaths (74/3).

There was one piece of possible good news in Wednesday's report from the state health department. The seven-day positive rate for COVID declined. The state had adjusted the positive rate for 11/26-12/2 from 7.5 to 6.9 percent. The rate for the period of 12/3-12/9 was 6.3. The next weekly update will be for the seven days from 12/10 to 12/16 and will be released on 12/23.

The parish with an estimated population of 40,000 has now had 40,115 COVID tests since the pandemic began. See this Friday's Weekly News and Bunkie Record for more details on COVID tests.

The state's pandemic totals as of Wednesday are 275,545 cases, 6,933 deaths and over 4 million tests administered since March.