NEW ORLEANS — There is some good news in Sunday's Louisiana coronavirus update, even as the state struggles with near-record high case and hospitalization numbers.
Since the last update Friday, hospitalizations have fallen by 109, one of the largest decreases on record. But that positive note should be taken with a grain of salt: Sunday updates contain data from Saturday as well because the state only reports new data once over the weekend.
Louisiana saw more than 5,400 new cases reported over the same two-day timeframe, and 40 more deaths.
Friday, more than 100 deaths were reported across the state, leaving many fearful of a return to numbers similar to the pandemic's first peak in April.
With just over 52,000 new tests reported over the weekend, that puts Louisiana's positivity rate around 10%, which is a significant cutoff according to infectious disease experts because it indicates the virus is spreading from each infectious person to more than one other person.
That calculation, commonly referred to as "r," is a measure of how many people the average person infects with a disease. If the r is greater than 1, more than 1 person is being infected by each carrier, meaning the virus' growth won't stop. An r under 1 indicates the virus is being effectively fought and isn't able to spread.
It's unclear exactly how much holiday travel will spike Louisiana's coronavirus numbers, but health experts say it won't be good when that spike fully hits; COVID-19 infections are often delayed by around two weeks because of the virus' long incubation period.
In total, around 280,000 people in Louisiana are estimated to have recovered from the virus.
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