BATON ROUGE, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Louisiana rose to 37,809 on Monday, while the number of people who reported to have died from the virus rose to 2,585.
That’s an increase of 650 cases and 18 more deaths reported over the past 24 hours, according to the latest numbers released daily by the Louisiana Department of Health.
A total of 244 new cases and 22 deaths were reported over the weekend, with just 4,228 test results reported. 14,862 tests were reported in Monday’s update, for a positivity rate of 4.31 percent.
The LDH said in a statement that Monday’s numbers reflect data that was not reported over the weekend due to technical issues.
“LDH has resolved the server issue that impacted reporting on commercial lab data on May 23-24, and more than 95% of impacted labs have been pulled into today’s reporting.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards is not expected to hold his usual Monday afternoon briefing on the state’s rseponse to the coronavirus due to the holiday or on Wednesday. The next scheduled briefing is set to take place on Friday.
The state also updated reports on the coronavirus in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, reporting a total of 607 COVID-19 cases among residents of other adult residential facilities and 91 deaths. The LDH says 108 facilities are reporting at least one COVID-19 case.
SEARCH: COVID-19 reports for NWLA nursing homes
The LDH also updated the number of people presumed recovered as of Monday to 28,700. That is 2,451 more presumed recoveries than were reported last week. Factoring in the number of positive cases and deaths, that means there are currently around 6,524 active cases in Louisiana.
A total of 162,397 tests have been performed so far in May, meaning the state is now 37,603 tests short of the 200,000-test goal set for the month. The state is on track to meet that goal if the number of tests reported weekdays continues to average or exceed around 7,000 daily.
The number of patients hospitalized for the coronavirus in Louisiana ticked up Monday for the first time since May 18, rising from 813 Sunday to 847. The number of patients on ventilators remained at 102 for a second day in a row.
There were 48 new coronavirus cases reported in Northwest Louisiana on Monday, 31 of them in Caddo Parish, which now has a total of 2,343. The Louisiana Department of Health is still reporting 174 deaths in Caddo. As of Thursday night, however, the Caddo Coroner’s office was reporting the number of COVID-19 deaths in the parish had risen to 181.
There can be a lag in locally reported cases and deaths appearing on the state health department dashboard.
Bossier Parish is reporting 16 more cases, bringing the total to 398. Natchitoches is also reporting seven new cases. Webster added three, DeSoto, Bienville, and Red River each added two and Claiborne one. Sabine is the only parish not reporting new cases in the latest update.
As of noon Monday, May 25, the LDH reported the following data on confirmed cases, deaths, and testing in northwest Louisiana:
- Caddo – 2,343 case(s) | 174 death(s) | 127 state tests | 28,411 commercial tests
- Bossier – 398 case(s) | 25 death(s) | 47 state tests | 10,385 commercial tests
- De Soto – 239 case(s) | 16 death(s) | 20 state tests | 2,462 commercial tests
- Webster – 139 case(s) | 6 death(s) | 13 state tests | 2,778 commercial tests
- Claiborne – 61 case(s) | 10 death(s) | 37 state tests | 868 commercial tests
- Bienville – 138 case(s) | 21 death(s) | 20 state tests | 1,267 commercial tests
- Natchitoches – 152 case(s) | 13 death(s) | 77 state tests | 1,666 commercial tests
- Sabine – 40 case(s) | 0 death(s) | 31 state tests | 917 commercial tests
- Red River – 48 case(s) | 6 death(s) | 16 state tests | 436 commercial tests