16 more COVID-19 cases in St. Mary

The noon Thursday report shows that St. Mary Parish's COVID-19 case count grew by 16 to 42 since noon Wednesday, according to the Louisiana Office of Public Health.

The St. Mary numbers resulted from 175 tests at state and commercial labs. St. Martin's number of positive tests rose 17 to 58 after 94 tests, and Assumption's case count grew by 6 to 31 after 82 tests.

No new deaths were reported in the three parishes. Three people died of COVID-19-related disease in St. Martin and were reported Friday.

Gov. John Bel Edwards had warned of a sudden spike in cases Thursday because of a testing backlog and the release of large numbers of results at one time.

Statewide, the numbers seem to bear him out. The statewide number of positive tests grew by 2,726 in a single day to 9,150.

The number of deaths rose by 37 to 310.

A total of 1,639 people are now in Louisiana hospitals to be treated with COVID-19-related illnesses, and 507, nearly a third, are on ventilators.

More than 51,000 tests have been administered.

One more death was reported in St. John the Baptist Parish, which has the highest number of deaths per 100,000 residents among the nation's parishes. Fourteen people have died in St. John.