BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
St. Landry Parish has reached an elevated medium community level risk for COVID positivity according to a report released Tuesday night by officials at Opelousas General Health System.
The updated health message from OGH, which indicates that COVID cases in the parish have risen significantly since June, was presented during a meeting of the Opelousas Board of Aldermen.
Parish COVID positivity rates have increased to 22.6 percent, which indicates a sharp rise from the 8.4 percent positivity recorded in St. Landry during June, the report said.
The rise in St. Landry COVID cases marks a similar trend in the eight-parish Acadiana region and reverses a COVID decline the parish experienced in March through May, the OGH report said.
Inpatient COVID testing began to show parish increases during mid-June., the OGH report said. As of Tuesday night there were five COVID inpatients at OGH and 24 hospital staff members are out after reporting that they were experiencing COVID symptoms.
About a third of the emergency room visits at OGH during the 24-hour period prior to Tuesday were COVID related, the report showed.
State statistics show that by the start of July, 51 percent of St. Landry residents are vaccinated for COVID. That percentage is slightly higher than the 48.2 percent vaccination rate for the remainder of the Acadiana region, said the OGH report.
