UPDATED: Elderly woman is second St. Mary resident to succumb to COVID-19

St. Mary Parish's second COVID-19 fatality was an elderly woman who died Thursday afternoon at Ochsner St. Mary, Coroner Eric Melancon said.

Her death was first listed by the Louisiana Office of Public Health as COVID-19-related Saturday.

The first victim was a St. Mary man who had gone to New Orleans in late February for treatment of an unrelated condition. He contracted COVID-19 there and died Wednesday at a New Orleans hospital.

Five more COVID-19 cases were reported in St. Mary at noon Saturday, bringing the total to 105 after 403 tests.

Another death was recorded for St. Martin, bringing the toll there to seven. St. Martin's case count rose by six to 146 after 159 tests.

In Assumption, four more people tested positive for a total of 109. The death toll remains at one. State and commercial labs have performed 150 tests there.

Statewide, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 topped 20,000. Another 761 positives were reported for a total of 20,014. Hospitalizations grew by only 11, to 2,067, and the number of people on ventilators fell by nine to 470.

But the number of deaths continued to rise. Fifty-one new COVID-19-related deaths were reported Saturday, bringing the total to 806. The death toll has risen 43% in the last five days.

Officials caution that because of a backlog at commercial testing labs, new cases and deaths reported in the 24-hour period may be the result of tests performed several days before.