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The state of Louisiana has seen its fifth straight day of 21 or fewer new COVID-19 deaths, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Louisiana Department of Health.

The state said Wednesday that there had been 38,497 cases of COVID-19 reported, with 2,617 deaths. On Tuesday, there had been 38,054 cases and 2,596 deaths reported.

The increase between Tuesday’s statewide update and Wednesday’s update was an additional 443 cases and an additional 21 deaths.

Wednesday’s report continued a trend of nearly record-low new death daily totals. There were 39 new deaths reported on Friday, May 22, but every day since then has been 21 or less — 15 on Saturday, seven on Sunday, 18 on Monday, 11 on Tuesday, and 21 on Wednesday.

This is the first stretch of five days of 21 deaths or fewer since March 22-26. The new deaths on those days were zero (March 22), 14 (March 23), 12 (March 24), 19 (March 25), and 18 (March 26). The new death total was 36 on March 27.

The LDH first began reporting new death totals on March 9.

COVID-19 hospitalizations also fell below 800 for the first time since March 27.

The LDH said at noon Wednesday that the state had 798 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and 100 of those patients required ventilators. On Tuesday, the state reported 831 hospitalizations and 103 ventilators in use.

Washington Parish had reported 407 cases and 38 deaths, according to the Wednesday update. On Tuesday, the parish had reported 400 cases and 37 deaths.

There had been 1,687 cases in St. Tammany Parish, with 156 deaths (an additional nine cases and no additional deaths compared to Tuesday), and 826 cases in Tangipahoa Parish, with 34 deaths (an additional 16 cases and one additional death compared to Tuesday).

Washington Parish had reported 3,546 COVID-19 tests, as of Wednesday’s update — an increase of 56 tests compared to Tuesday’s report.

In Wednesday’s update, the LDH said that 17,917 tests had been reported from the state laboratory, and an additional 329,730 tests had been reported from commercial laboratories — a total of 347,647 tests. The state had reported a total of 341,026 tests in Tuesday’s update — a difference of 6,621 tests.

The LDH reported Wednesday that there are 28,700 presumed recovered cases of COVID-19, as of its May 24 update.

A person is presumed to have recovered if:

• It has been more than 14 days, since he/she tested positive and he/she is not currently in the hospital or deceased (when hospital status is known), or
• It has been more than 21 days, since he/she tested positive and he/she is not deceased (when hospital status is unknown).

The previous report was released on May 16, with 26,249 presumed recovered cases — a difference of 2,451 additional recoveries.

The LDH typically releases updated statistics each day at approximately noon. For complete statistics, visit the LDH online at ldh.la.gov/coronavirus.