Over 70% Of Today’s New COVID Cases In Louisiana Are Old Data
The Louisiana Department of Health posted 827 new COVID-19 cases for the state today during their daily update. Which is the highest number of new cases the state has seen in weeks. But before that number was reported, Governor John Bel Edwards had already issued a quasi-correction to that number.
During a live, digital Town Hall today, Governor Edwards announced the numbers, and immediately informed those watching that the data had been skewed. Of the 827 "new" cases added to the LDH total, 609 are coming from a lab who had a backlog of old results. Those old results date all the way back to March.
That means 74% of the cases reported as "new" today were actually old. Governor Edwards said during the digital Town Hall that the "real number" is 218 new cases. The Governor added that the 218 cases is more in line with the decline the state has been seeing in the trend of the numbers.
The Louisiana Department of Health also announced there are currently 1,193 people in hospitals across the state with COVID-19 related illness, which is down from 1,320 on May 12th. Of those who are in the hospitals, only 140 are utilizing ventilators, which is the lowest number in the state since March. The number of hospitalizations and ventilator use have been steadily declining over the last month.
Today's update from the Louisiana Department of Health did not feature an update to the state's "recovery" statistics. It remains at 22,608, and hasn't been updated since May 10th.