COVID cases, deaths continue to climb

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Lincoln Parish jumped 15% in a week’s time, according to the latest count from the Louisiana Department of Health.

The parish also recorded another death, bringing to 23 the number of local residents who have died of the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus or complications from it.

As of noon Monday, LDH reported Lincoln Parish with a total 641 cases of COVID-19. That’s up 33 cases since Friday and 83 cases in a week. However, how many of those cases are active is unknown, as is the length of time between testing and a COVID-positive report.

The additional death was reported in Sunday’s LDH update. That marked the second added parish death to show up in the report since Friday.

But the LDH numbers also show the CO-VID-19 positivity rate had dropped slightly since July 2. As of the week ending July 15, the rate was 9.6%, down from 10% the previous week.

Even at 9.6%, the rate is higher than it was when LDH first started reporting it publicly in late June. Then the number was just under 7%.

The positivity rate indicates the percentage of total novel coronavirus tests conducted that come back positive. The numbers do not appear to take into account any duplicate tests that may have been done over those weeks.

Statewide, COVID-19 continues to surge. As of Monday, 109,917 cases had been confirmed statewide since the count began in March. LDH has said most of the recent increase continues to come from community spread.