NEW ORLEANS — New coronavirus numbers released Sunday by the Louisiana Department of Health show 12 new deaths reported since Saturday from coronavirus complications. That number is the lowest Louisiana has seen since March.
The 12 deaths bring Louisiana's death toll to 2,425. The state has 34,432 confirmed cases as of Sunday. At least 22,608 of those patients are presumed to have recovered.
The low number of deaths reported Sunday is likely due to a number of factors, including low reporting on the weekends and uneven reporting of deaths to the state, but is still a positive sign for Louisiana as it begins reopening businesses.
The last time Louisiana saw 12 new coronavirus deaths was March 24, 10 days after the first death in the state.
The number of patients hospitalized with the virus also dropped again Sunday, continuing a generally positive trend that has been ongoing for several weeks.
The state reported 1,019 hospitalizations Sunday, down slightly from the 1,028 reported Saturday.
More good news: fewer of those hospitalized patients are on ventilators. The new data shows 111 patients on ventilators because of COVID-19, down from 123 the day before.
In total, Louisiana has performed 265,170 tests, meaning about 1 in 20 people have been tested.
That high level of testing is a large part of the reasoning behind Gov. John Bel Edwards' decision to reopen the Louisiana economy by rescinding his stay at home order Friday.
Phase one, which Louisiana is currently in, keeps social gatherings limited to 10 people, but allows restaurants, movie theaters, churches and gyms to reopen with strict physical distancing protocols.
Edwards said he expects to make a decision about moving to phase two at the beginning of June.
The state isn't completely clearing the bar set by the White House for when states should look at reopening, but Edwards expressed confidence that the slow rollout his administration was implementing, coupled with the large number of tests conducted and the hiring of new contact tracing workers to track the virus, would help the state smoothly transition out of the stay at home order.
Dr. Alex Billioux, the Assistant Secretary of Health for the Louisiana Department of Public Health, said that aggressive contact tracing is crucial to allowing the state to reopen safely.
Billioux said that contact tracers would be asking someone who tested positive to give them a list of people they have come in contact with and where they have been.
Unemployment numbers reported Thursday show more than 40,000 people filed new claims in Louisiana last week as the coronavirus fight continues to pound the state's economy.
For the comparable week last year, the figure was around 2,000. As of last week, more than 325,000 qualified for unemployment benefits in the state, compared to 13,400 for the comparable week last year.
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