Ascension Parish reported 294 additional COVID-19 cases this week

Bryce Phelps, 3, picks a lollipop after receiving his Pfizer vaccine Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at Bloom Pediatrics in Birmingham, Alabama.

Louisiana reported 13,968 new cases of coronavirus in the week ended Sunday, up from 13,893 the week before of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Louisiana ranked sixth among the states with the fastest spread of the coronavirus per person, according to a USA TODAY Network analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. Last week, coronavirus cases in the United States rose 11.8% from the previous week, with 800,077 cases reported. With 1.4% of the country’s population, Louisiana had 1.75% of the country’s cases over the past week. Across the country, 38 states had more cases in the last week than the week before.

Johns Hopkins University collected data from Louisiana on an irregular schedule, which skewed week-to-week comparisons.

Ascension Parish reported 294 cases and one death in the last week. A week earlier it had reported 397 cases and one death. 36,681 cases and 295 deaths have been reported during the pandemic.

Within Louisiana, the worst weekly outbreaks per person were in Richland Parish, with 795 cases per 100,000 per week; West Carroll Parish at 711; and Bossier Parish with 496. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Most new cases overall were added by Caddo Parish with 1,122 cases; Jefferson Parish with 1,101 cases; and East Baton Rouge Parish with 1,022. The weekly number of cases increased in 38 communities compared to the previous week. The worst increases from the previous week’s pace were in the communities of Caddo, Ouachita and Rapides.

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Across Louisiana, cases fell in 24 communities, with the best falls in the East Baton Rouge community with 1,022 cases, down from 1,281 a week earlier; in the commune of Terrebonne, with 374 cases out of 489; and in Jefferson Parish with 1,101 cases out of 1,215.

In Louisiana, 26 people were reported to have died from COVID-19 in the week ended Sunday. The week before, 19 people were reported dead.

A total of 1,310,829 people in Louisiana have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 17,418 people have died from the disease, data from Johns Hopkins University shows. In the United States, 87,843,561 people tested positive and 1,017,848 people died.

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