La. COVID hospitalizations down for third straight report

The number of people in Louisiana's overextended hospitals for COVID-19 treatment fell over the weekend, marking the third straight Office of Public Health report in which hospitalizations were down.

But in St. Mary, another 111 new COVID cases were reported for Saturday and Sunday.

Those cases raised the number of cases recorded in St. Mary since the pandemic began to 7,607. The number of COVID-related deaths in St. Mary is at 175, all of them reported as of Friday. One death in six since the first St Mary COVID death in April 2020 has occurred since Aug. 1.

Statewide, hospitalizations fell by 161 to 2,836. Before the first of three straight daily decreases, the number of hospitalizations set records for 16 consecutive days.

The state reported 10,950 new cases and 59 deaths over the weekend.