Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The number of COVID-19 patients in state hospitals has fallen below 1,400 for the first time in more than a month, according to statistics released Friday by the Louisiana Department of Health.

On Friday, the LDH reported that the state had 1,359 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, and 185 of those patients required ventilators. On Thursday, the state had reported 1,432 hospitalized patients and 189 ventilators in use.

Friday’s hospital census is the lowest it has been since March 31, when the state reported 1,355 COVID-19 patients in state hospitals. The state’s peak hospitalization day was April 13, when 2,134 patients were reported.

Friday’s 185 ventilators in use was the lowest point since March 25, when there were 193 ventilators reported in use. That was only the second day in which the state began reporting the statistic — the first day (March 24), there were 94 ventilators reported in use.

The LDH said Friday that there had been 30,855 cases of COVID-19 reported, with 2,154 deaths. On Thursday, there had been 30,652 cases and 2,135 deaths reported.

The increase between Thursday’s statewide update and Friday’s update was an additional 203 cases and an additional 19 deaths.

The state also reported an additional 19 deaths on May 3. Prior to that, the previous low in this statistical category was March 29, when an additional 14 deaths were reported.

Washington Parish had reported 312 cases and 24 deaths, according to the Friday update. On Thursday, the parish had reported 308 cases and 24 deaths.

There had been 1,416 cases in St. Tammany Parish, with 125 deaths (an additional single case and an additional single death compared to Thursday), and 645 cases in Tangipahoa Parish, with 27 deaths (an additional 10 cases and an additional single death compared to Thursday).

There had been 1,892 COVID-19 tests reported from Washington Parish, as of Friday’s update. This was an increase of 15 tests compared to Thursday.

In Friday’s update at noon, the LDH said that 9,112 tests had been completed by the state laboratory, and an additional 193,304 tests had been reported from commercial laboratories — a total of 202,416 tests. The state had reported a total of 200,767 tests in Thursday’s update.

The state of Louisiana also reports the number of “presumed recovered” cases of COVID-19. In Thursday’s report the total of presumed recovered cases was 20,316, as of May 2.

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