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Number Of Reported COVID-19 In Louisiana Jumps Up By 710 — But Don't Freak Out

A dog statue wears a mask at a home on St Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana. April 7, 2020.
Ben Depp
/
For WWNO
A dog statue wears a mask at a home on St Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana. April 7, 2020.

The number of COVID-19 cases reported in Louisiana jumped up by 710 — or 2.54 percent — on Friday, according to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH).

That's the biggest in crease in number in 20 days and the biggest percent increase in two weeks, but it's just a matter of reporting.

The LDH initially reported a higher number of completed tests than usual today  — 6,942 compared to 4,741 on Thursday, 5,469 on Wednesday, 4,119 on Tuesday, 3,953 on Monday and 4,034 on Sunday. And sure enough, soon followed up with a press release explaining that two labs were reporting all of their tests for the firt time.

Those reports made up 381 of the new cases today. The rest amount to 329 new cases Friday — about average for the last week or so.

In all, there have been 28,711 cases of COVID-19 reported in Louisiana. There are 6,495 in Orleans Parish, 6,305 in Jefferson Parish and 1,989 in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Sixty-five people were reported dead of COVID-19 statewide today, bringing the total number of peopel killed by the coronavirus to 1,927. The state is still counting 43 deaths as probable COVID-19 deaths. In Orleans Parish, 437 people have died. In Jefferson Parish, 368 people have died. And in East Baton Rouge Parish, 146 people have died.

The number of people hospitalized across Louisiana rose by six, to 1,607, and the number of people on ventilators dropped by just one, to 230.

The number of people presumed recovered has not been updated.

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Ashley Dean is the digital news editor for New Orleans Public Radio. Before coming to New Orleans, she was the editor of Denverite, a digital news startup now under the Colorado Public Radio umbrella. Prior to that she was a copy editor and features writer at the Denver Post, and before that, a music reporter for the Colorado Daily. She graduated from Columbia University with a master's degree in journalism and from Northeastern University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.