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Vaccinations for COVID-19 plummeted in Acadiana and across the state this week while new cases and hospitalizations for the virus locally held steady after increasing last week.
Acadiana’s new COVID-19 vaccinations dropped 44% this week from last week as just 3,512 new shots were given to residents since last Friday.
Acadiana is clinging to one of the lowest regional vaccination rates in the state at 26.1% of the region’s 658,000 residents starting a vaccine, ahead of only the Cenla and Lake Charles areas. As of Thursday, 21.7% of Acadiana residents were fully vaccinated.
Weekly vaccinations in Acadiana are now down 70% from just two weeks ago, while vaccinations statewide have dropped 75% in just the past month.
COVID-19: Acadiana cases rise, but prevalence drops as testing rebounds
New cases of COVID-19 grew by more than 50% in Acadiana this week as testing more than doubled while vaccinations stalled across the region.
The eight-parish region reported 596 new COVID-19 cases this week for an average of 85 per day, an increase of 57% over last week’s new cases, which came as testing in the region plummeted.
That decline in testing pushed Acadiana’s preliminary positivity rate to 5.1% last week, up from 2.1% the week before, but a return to normal testing rates this week saw the region report just shy of 2,500 new tests per day, meaning this week’s new cases amount to a preliminary positivity rate of 3.4%, though those figures differ from the calculations used by Louisiana’s Department of Health.
Acadiana’s parishes saw new COVID-19 cases remain steady this week even as testing dropped 58% regionally, suggesting a higher prevalence of the virus in the community.
This week the eight-parish region reported 380 new cases of COVID-19, or 54 per day on average, an increase of 4% from last week’s 364 new cases. But this week’s slight increase in cases came alongside a precipitous drop in testing for COVID-19 in the region that saw the number of cases reported per COVID-19 test double from last week.
Acadiana recorded 7,407 COVID-19 test results this week, more than 10,000 fewer tests than were reported in the region the week before for a 58% drop in daily COVID-19 testing rates locally.
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