Three more COVID deaths reported in St. Mary
The COVID incidence and positivity rates in St. Mary are showing declines, but the daily Office of Public Health case and death numbers continue to go up.
The office reported 67 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths in the parish between midday Wednesday and midday Thursday.
St. Mary's COVID death toll is now at 170. Twenty-three COVID-positive St. Mary people have died since Aug. 1.
The parish's COVID case count reached 7,418.
St. Mary's positivity rate, the percentage of COVID tests returning positive results, fell about 2 points to 16% during the week ending Aug. 11, and the seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 people was down 5%. But both rates are high enough to keep St. Mary, along with all other parishes, in the "highest risk" category.
Statewide, another 5,550 cases in 24 hours were reported by the office Thursday. Another 58 deaths were also reported.
Hospitals
Statewide, hospitalizations were down by nine Thursday to 3,013, a rare daily decline.
Ochsner Health System reported 17 COVID-positive patients at Ochsner St. Mary in Morgan City on Wednesday, 16 of them unvaccinated.
Ochsner's hospitals across the Louisiana and Mississippi were treating 1,028 COVID patients Wednesday, down six from Tuesday.
In Ochsner's Bayou Region, which includes Ochsner St. Mary, three other hospitals and partner Terrebonne General, the number of COVID patients was up four Wednesday to 112.
But hospitals remain jammed with COVID patients, a situation that public health officials say hinders care not only for COVID patients but for others who need hospital procedures.
Ochsner said it canceled 1,163 surgeries last week alone. The system's hospitals turned down transfer requires from 90 facilities in several states.
A team of 20 military health care professionals sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived at one of Ochsner's hospitals, the former Lafayette General, on Wednesday. But on his monthly radio show Wednesday, Gov. John Bel Edwards said the state lacks the resources to provide more than a fraction of the staffing help that hospitals have requested.