The Louisiana Department of Health added 750 new COVID-19 cases Thursday based on 28,376 new tests, pushing the state’s total of identified cases to 432,527.

Of the overall identified cases, 371,630 are confirmed, with 60,897 listed as possible cases.

According to an LDH spokesman, people initially identified as having a positive antigen test who are later identified as having a positive confirmatory test will be removed from the possible case count and added to the cumulative case count.

The rough positivity rate for the new cases reported Thursday was 2.6 percent.

Louisiana had 9,686 total COVID-19 deaths as of Thursday, with 18 new deaths added. Of the total deaths, 8,986 are confirmed with 700 considered probable COVID-19 fatalities pending final testing.

The average age of fatal patients remained at 75, while the median age was at 76 as of Feb. 24.

Local numbers

In Iberia Parish, the number of cases rose to 6,501 Thursday, an increase of 14. Of those, 5,975 are confirmed, with 526 probable. The number of deaths remained at 146, with 134 confirmed and 12 probable. There have been 83,194 tests performed in the parish. The seven-day average test positivity dropped 26.56 percent, from 6.4 percent on Feb. 17 to 4.7 percent on Feb. 24. The incidence of tests rose by 53.7 percent, from 76.12 per 10,000 population on Feb. 17 to 117 on Feb. 24.

St. Martin Parish’s number of identified cases rose to 4,862, an increase of three, with 58,691 tests performed. The seven-day average test positivity rate dropped from 5.3 percent on Feb. 17 to 4.6 percent on Feb. 24, a 13.21 percent decrease, while the testing incidence rate per 10,000 population rose 52 percent, from 46.62 on Feb. 17 to 70.87 on Feb. 24. The number of deaths remained at 112, with 102 confirmed and 10 probable.

In St. Mary Parish, the seven-day positivity rate dropped to 4.3 percent as of Feb. 24, down from 5.9 percent on Feb. 17, a 27.12 percent decrease. The testing incidence rate per 10,000 population rose, from 98.44 on Feb. 17 to 136.62 on Feb. 24. Total cases Thursday rose to 4,181 after 50,894 tests. Of those positive tests, 3,359 are confirmed, with 822 probable. The number of COVID-19 deaths rose to 122, with 109 confirmed and 13 probable.

Around the state

In Lafayette Parish, the Thursday case count rose by 69, to 21,698, with the number of tests rising to 290,502. The seven-day test positivity average dropped from 4.1 percent on Feb. 17 to 3 percent as of Feb. 24, a decrease of 26.83 percent. The testing incidence rate per 10,000 population rose during the same period, from 61.37 to 62.2, a 1.34 percent increase. The number of deaths remained at 262, with 244 confirmed and 18 probable.

The number of cases in Jefferson Parish rose to 44,128 on Thursday, compared to an increase to 28,624 in Orleans Parish. The latest data shows Orleans administered more tests, with 779,083, compared to 566,532 tests in Jefferson.

Jefferson Parish continues to surpass the COVID-19 death toll in Orleans Parish. Orleans Parish deaths were at 766, with 717 confirmed and 49 probable. In Jefferson Parish, the total number of deaths rose to 854, with 820 confirmed and 34 probable.

Hospitalizations

The LDH reporting showed hospitalizations statewide due to coronavirus infections dropped by 34, to 554 on Wednesday. The number of patients on ventilators dropped by four, to 74.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Region 4, which covers Acadiana, dropped by two to 49 Wednesday. The number of patients on ventilators remained at five.

Overall hospital bed occupancy in Region 4 Wednesday was at 73.6 percent, with 1,234 of the region’s beds occupied and 442 available. The total number of reported beds was at 1,676.

Overall intensive care unit occupancy across Acadiana was still below 90 percent Wednesday, at 85.5 percent, with 142 of 166 beds occupied.

The overall occupancy percentages are based on all cases, not just COVID-19 cases, and includes not only the physical bed and space but also the staff required to issue care. The burden of additional patient load affects the ability of hospitals to serve all patients, especially in critical care situations.

By age group

Broken down by age group, the number of cases statewide in the 18 to 29 demographic was at 88,168 Thursday. It is the demographic group with the largest number of identified cases by far. The number of deaths reported in the group was 33.

The number of COVID-19 cases identified in the 30 to 39 age group was at 69,370, with 125 deaths, followed closely by the 40 to 49 age group, with 62,930 cases and 278 deaths, and the 50 to 59 age range with 62,295 cases, including 802 fatalities reported.

In the 60 to 69 age group, there were 50,026 cases reported and 1,824 deaths. This age group has the second-highest number of deaths, behind only the 70 and above demographic group.

The 70 and above group case count was at 44,911. The number of deaths in that group rose to 6,617 — still the largest number of fatalities for any age group by far, more than the number of deaths in all other groups combined and more than two-thirds of the total COVID-19 attributed deaths in the state.

The under 18 group had 54,512 cases total — 9,944 age 4 and under — and seven reported deaths.

Seven-day average

The state’s seven-day average of tests given as of Feb. 24 was 238.4 tests per 10,000 residents, up from 188 on Feb. 17. The positivity rate among those tests dropped by seven-tenths of a point as of Feb. 24 to 3.7 percent, down from 4.4 percent on Feb. 17.

In Region 4, the Feb. 24 testing rate was even lower, at 229.2 tests per 10,000 residents. The seven-day average percent positive of those tests was lower than the state average at 3.6 percent, down from 4.2 percent on Feb. 17.

According to Thursday’s update, labs in Louisiana have processed 6,057,642 COVID-19 tests so far.

Gender, underlying conditions

By gender, the state’s bi-weekly report shows women still making up the largest part — 56 percent — of the identified COVID-19 cases in the state, with men comprising 44 percent. On the other hand, the COVID-19 deaths are predominantly among men, 52.3 percent to 47.7 percent for women.

The number of presumed recovered cases, as of March 1, rose to 415,954. In order to be considered recovered, a living patient must either be out of the hospital and 14 days past a positive test result, or 21 days past a positive test date if their hospitalization status is unknown.

Initially, LDH reported that 70 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the state were in the Black community. That number dropped to 38.7 percent as of Feb. 24, while White victims now make up 59.8 percent of all fatal cases.

The Native American/Alaskan Native total was at 0.15 percent. Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander data remained at 0.08 percent. Other races identified include Asian at 0.77 percent, Unknown at 0.01 percent and Other at 0.41 percent.

That data is supposed to be reported once every two weeks as of the beginning of the year.

The top three underlying conditions among COVID-19 deaths in the Feb. 24 report were hypertension (62.8 percent), diabetes (37 percent), and cardiac disease (26.7 percent).

Other factors included neurological disorders (26.3 percent), chronic kidney disease (21.5 percent), obesity (21 percent), congestive heart failure (16.3 percent), pulmonary issues (14.6 percent), cancer (8.8 percent), and asthma (4.1 percent). Only 4.2 percent of all patients had no underlying conditions.

Dwayne Fatherree is the community editor for The Daily Iberian. He can be reached at dwayne.fatherree@daily-iberian.com.