Deaths from the coronavirus COVID-19 in St. Landry Parish rose to six as of the noon Friday update from the Louisiana Department of Health.
On Wednesday, the death toll from the virus in St. Landry Parish was at four.
The number of cases in St. Landry Parish was at 103, up from 86 on Wednesday.
The count on Saturday was 11 deaths and 109 cases.
The number of cases in the state as of Friday reached 19,253 with 755 deaths. There were 2,054 people in hospitals and 479 of those were on ventilators.
The virus has been found in 63 of 64 parishes. Tensas Parish is the only parish the state to not have a positive COVID-19 case.
The Department of Health is reporting 70.48% of the deaths in the state are among blacks.
On Friday, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced he is forming a task force to address number of deaths of deaths among blacks form the virus. About a third of the state’s residents are black.
The task force will comprise state health officials and academics from Southern University, Xavier University, LSU, Tulane University, Pennington Biomedical Research center and schools of nursing across the state. The Edwards administration did not have a list of names Friday, as the names provided by universities was still coming in, according to a report in The Advocate.
In the near-term, the task force will focus on “blanketing” communities that have health disparities with accurate information about coronavirus, Edwards said. That information is not only geared towards the state’s stay-at-home order and social distancing, but also how people with underlying conditions that put them at risk from the virus can maintain their health.
Area parishes and their virus numbers include:
— Acadia Parish, 94 cases; four deaths;
— Evangeline Parish, 35 cases, no deaths;
— Lafayette Parish, 330 cases, 12 deaths;
— St. Martin Parish, 140 cases, six deaths;
— Pointe Coupee Parish, 38 cases, two deaths; and
— Avoyelles Parish, 56 cases, one death.
The state reports deaths and cases by parish, but does not report by municipality.
