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The state of Louisiana’s census of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and patients on ventilators continued to drop slightly, according to statistics released Thursday by the Louisiana Department of Health.

The LDH said at noon Thursday that the state had 1,193 hospitalized patients, and 140 of those patients required ventilators. On Wednesday, the state reported 1,194 hospitalizations and 147 ventilators in use.

The state said Thursday that there had been 33,489 cases of COVID-19 reported, with 2,351 deaths. On Wednesday, there had been 32,662 cases and 2,315 deaths.

The increase between Wednesday’s statewide update and Thursday’s update was an additional 827 cases and an additional 36 deaths. However, Gov. John Bel Edwards said during a town hall Thursday that 609 of those cases are from a single lab that has only recently begun reporting its cases to the state — and some of those cases could be from as far back as March.

Washington Parish had reported 356 cases and 29 deaths, according to the Thursday update. On Wednesday, the parish had reported 350 cases and 29 deaths.

There had been 1,511 cases in St. Tammany Parish, with 142 deaths (an additional 19 cases and no additional deaths compared to Wednesday), and 696 cases in Tangipahoa Parish, with 30 deaths (an additional nine cases and no additional deaths compared to Wednesday).

There had been 2,376 COVID-19 tests reported from Washington Parish, as of Thursday’s update. That is an increase of an additional 79 tests, compared to Wednesday’s report.

In Thursday’s update, the LDH said that 10,752 tests had been completed by the state laboratory, and an additional 236,836 tests had been reported from commercial laboratories — a total of 247,588 tests. The state had reported a total of 237,904 tests in Wednesday’s update — a difference of 9,684 tests.

The LDH also reported Thursday that there are 22,608 presumed recovered cases of COVID-19, as of its May 10 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 2, with 20,316 presumed recovered cases — a difference of 2,292 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.