The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) reported 200 new positive tests for the coronavirus Tuesday — the smallest increase in sheer numbers since March 21 and the smallest percent increase since the first case was reported.
The department reported 200 news cases since yesterday. That's a growth of .74 percent.
Growth in positive test results is a reflection of testing itself as much as the actual change in the number of known cases. And unknown cases, of course, loom large in any analysis of COVID-19 data.
What we do know is that the LDH was reporting fewer than 100 new cases a day in the early weeks of testing, with the exception of two days, and that those numbers jumped into the multi-hundreds three days into the department reporting completed commercial lab tests — March 20.
For weeks afterward, growth rates were inconsistent on a day-to-day basis, but were frequently above 20, 30 and even 40 percent.
On April 12, things evened out and the growth rate hovered between 2 and 3 percent. Since April 21, it's been between 1 and 2 percent, dropping below 1 percent twice — on Sunday and today.
A couple important things to note:
1. Growth on Sundays and Mondays is always skewed by weekend reporting practices.
2. The growth rate is very high in the early days because there are only a few known cases (so growth from one to three is a 200 percent increase, for example).
Long story short: the data doesn't give us a perfect picture, but it is showing us a trend.
A quick look at the rest of today's LDH report:
Another 61 people have died of COVID-19 in Louisiana. In all, 1,758 people have died here.
There have been 27,268 known cases. State and commercial labs have completed a combined 151,108 tests.
As of today, 1,666 people are hospitalized with COVID-19. That's 17 fewer people than yesterday, and that number has been in a pretty steady downward trend.
There are 244 people on ventilators — 18 fewer than yesterday. That number is also decreasing fairly consistently.
As of April 26, 17,303 people are presumed recovered.
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