The Louisiana Department of Health added 504 new COVID-19 cases Friday based on 21,947 new tests, pushing the state’s total of identified cases to 433,045.

Of the overall identified cases, 371,994 are confirmed, with 61,051 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 Friday was 2.3 percent.

Louisiana had 9,716 total COVID-19 deaths as of Friday, with 30 new deaths added. Of the total deaths, 9,007 are confirmed with 709 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 6,502 Friday, an increase of one. Of those, 5,974 are confirmed, with 528 probable. The number of deaths rose by one, to 147, with 135 confirmed and 12 probable. There have been 83,483 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 4,873, an increase of 11, with 58,858 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 Friday rose to 4,185, an increase of four, after 51,084 tests. Of those positive tests, 3,362 are confirmed, with 823 probable. The number of COVID-19 deaths remained at 122, with 109 confirmed and 13 probable.

Around the state

In Lafayette Parish, the Friday case count rose by two, to 21,700, with the number of tests rising to 291,346. 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 44,184 on Friday, a rise of 56, compared to an increase of 31, to 28,655, in Orleans Parish. The latest data shows Orleans administered more tests, with 783,334, compared to 568,730 tests in Jefferson.

Jefferson Parish continues to surpass the COVID-19 death toll in Orleans Parish. Orleans Parish deaths remained at 766, with 717 confirmed and 49 probable. In Jefferson Parish, the total number of deaths rose to 857, an increase of three, with 824 confirmed and 33 probable.

Hospitalizations

The LDH reporting showed hospitalizations statewide due to coronavirus infections dropped by 16, to 538 on Thursday.

The number of patients on ventilators rose by three, to 77.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Region 4, which covers Acadiana, dropped by five to 44 Thursday. The number of patients on ventilators rose by one, to six.

Overall hospital bed occupancy in Region 4 Thursday was at 73.8 percent, with 1,231 of the region’s beds occupied and 437 available. The total number of reported beds was at 1,668.

Overall intensive care unit occupancy across Acadiana was still below 90 percent Thursday, at 84.5 percent, with 131 of 155 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 88,272 Friday. 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 69,444, with 125 deaths, followed closely by the 40 to 49 age group, with 62,989 cases and 278 deaths, and the 50 to 59 age range with 62,371 cases, including 802 fatalities reported.

In the 60 to 69 age group, there were 50,081 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 44,945. 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 54,630 cases total — 9,973 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 6,079,589 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.