Virus stats up, House panel debates stay-at-home order

Lincoln Parish’s upward trend in confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus continues, according to the daily Louisiana Health Department report released late Wednesday afternoon.

The parish now has 99 confirmed cases, up three from the day before. The number of known cases has increased every day this month. One week ago, the tally stood at 85, LDH figures show.

At least 10 Lincoln Parish residents have died of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. LDH could not update the reported deaths by parish or statewide Wednesday because of network issues.

The department’s website said the issues impacted their epidemiology team’s database that powers the COVID-19 reporting system for positive cases from labs and deaths.

Wednesday’s report was delayed three hours because of the technical issues.

The available numbers show 30,399 confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide.

The new data came at the same time the Legislature’s House and Governmental Affairs committee was debating a concurrent resolution by Rep. Blake Miquez, R-Lafayette, which would effectively cancel Gov. John Bel Edwards’ stay-at-home order that’s in effect through May 15.

The resolution would allow the state economy to reopen on a parish-by-parish basis whenever local authorities see fit.

As of deadline for today’s edition of the Ruston Daily Leader, the committee had been debating the resolution for more than three hours.