Avoyelles Parish grades ‘C’ on social distancing during COVID crisis

Avoyelles Parish improved its "grade" for social distancing in late April, but recent initial unemployment claims rose as the COVID-19 emergency order was extended into mid-May.

Dr. Randall Dupont, dean of LSUA's College of Business, produced his "Cenla Economic Dashboard" report to look at important numbers related to the coronavirus and the efforts to control its spread. He has released three reports during the "stay at home" order.

Avoyelles rated a "D" in a report that looked at April 20 statistics, but had improved to a "C" for social distancing by a week later.

Avoyelles native Blake Chatelain, CEO of Red River Bank and a member of the LSU Board of Supervisors, said many area business leaders want to know the impact COVID-19 is having on the economy.

“Knowing that all business and political leaders are searching for the economic status of our communities during this crisis, it was natural to call upon LSUA to help with such a critical project,” Chatelain said.

Dupont, whose family is from the Dupont area, pulled information from various sources to look at different indicators of how communities are responding to the virus and the economic impact to those communities.

“Our goal is to help business and community leaders monitor the economic pulse of central Louisiana,” Dupont said. “With current and relevant information, they can better meet the needs of the changing business environment.”

The first thing Dupont looked at was how well the parishes are practicing "social distancing."

LATEST REPORT

His latest update, released on May 1, gives cause for hope and for concern as Avoyelles Parish copes with the COVID crisis.

Avoyelles is now tied for second place in the 10-parish central/south central region in its social distancing as of April 26.

Avoyelles and Concordia both graded a "C," based on the Unacast.Com " social distancing scoreboard," based on tracking mobility through cell phones.

In the previous report, as of April 20, Avoyelles scored a "D."

One interpretation of the latest statistics is that more Avoyelles Parish residents are limiting their mobility because more Avoyelles Parish residents have nowhere to go until they can go back to work.

LaSalle has the highest social distancing grade with a B-. All others in the region have a "D" or "F."

In his previous report, Dupont looked at mobility for several purposes, as determined by Google's tracking of cellphones. There were no new statistics available for his May 1 report.

"We used the mobility information on Feb. 16 as a base-line," Dupont said.

The mobility information compared (1) retail shopping,(2) grocery and pharmacy visits, and (3) going to work on two dates, March 29 and April 11.

On March 29, mobility in Avoyelles Parish for retail and other general movement was 24 percent less than on Feb. 16. Mobility was only 16 percent less than baseline on April 11.

There was more mobility to go to the grocery and pharmacy, where there was 8 percent less traveling on March 29 than there had been on Feb. 16. That movement had increased by April 11 to 5 percent more than it had been in mid-February.The mobility to workplace was 32 percent less on March 29 than it was on Feb. 16. Mobility had increased slightly by April 11, with the Google tracking showing 27 percent less movement than there had been on Feb. 16.

UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS

Initial unemployment claims in the May 1 report, showing the week of April 18, rose in all 10 of the parishes.

New claims were the highest of the COVID period for Allen, Catahoula, Concordia, Evangeline and St. Landry.

Avoyelles' highest new claims total was the week of March 21, right after the state's "stay at home" order canceled schools, prohibited on-premises dining and closed bars, casinos, bowling alleys and other recreational facilities. The parish had seen fewer new claims for the weeks of March 28, April 4 and April 11, when there was 412 new unemployment claims. There were 491 new claims in Avoyelles for the week of April 18.

Counting the week of March 14, when there were only 14 new claims, there had been 2,709 Avoyelles Parish workers filing for unemployment benefits up to the week of April 18.That is third most among the 10 parishes, behind Rapides with 7,689 and St. Landry with 5,885.

For the entire group of parishes -- Allen, Avoyelles,Catahoula, Concordia, Evangeline, Grant, LaSalle, Rapides, St. Landry and Vernon -- 25,206 had gone on the jobless rolls between March 14 and April 18.

WANTS MORE AVOYELLES DATA

Dupont has had sales tax information for Rapides Parish, Alexandria and Pineville for his dashboard reports, but wants more economic information from his family's home parish. He plans to obtain sales tax collection information from the Avoyelles School District, the sales tax collector for the parish's municipalities, Police Jury, Law Enforement District and School Board. He will also include permitting information from the Rapides Area Planning Commission, the agency that handles permits and building inspections for the Police Jury.

Those two pieces of information will help give a clearer picture of how the parish's economy is weathering the health care crisis.