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The state of Louisiana’s census of COVID-19 patients in hospitals dropped by more than 100 over the span of 24 hours, according to statistics released Friday by the Louisiana Department.

The LDH said at noon Friday that the state had 1,091 hospitalized patients, and 132 of those patients required ventilators. On Thursday, the state reported 1,193 hospitalizations and 140 ventilators in use.

Friday’s report is the lowest number of hospitalized patients since March 28, when there were 927 hospitalizations. It is the lowest number of ventilators in use since the 94 reported on March 24 — the first day that LDH issued a report of ventilators in use.

The consistent improvement in these two statistics is one reason the state made the decision to begin its re-opening with the start of “Phase One” on Friday. The peak number of hospitalizations was 2,134 on April 13, and the peak number of ventilators in use was 571 on April 4.

Friday’s report listed 1,043 fewer hospitalizations than the peak, and 439 fewer ventilators in use than the peak.

The state said Friday that there had been 33,837 cases of COVID-19 reported, with 2,382 deaths. On Thursday, there had been 33,489 cases and 2,351 deaths.

The increase between Thursday’s statewide update and Friday’s update was an additional 348 cases and an additional 31 deaths.

Washington Parish had reported 357 cases and 31 deaths, according to the Friday update. On Thursday, the parish had reported 356 cases and 29 deaths.

There had been 1,520 cases in St. Tammany Parish, with 143 deaths (an additional nine cases and one additional death compared to Thursday), and 707 cases in Tangipahoa Parish, with 30 deaths (an additional 11 cases and no additional deaths compared to Thursday).

There had been 2,451 COVID-19 tests reported from Washington Parish, as of Friday’s update. That is an increase of an additional 75 tests, compared to Thursday’s report.

In Friday’s update, the LDH said that 11,114 tests had been reported from the state laboratory, and an additional 242,075 tests had been reported from commercial laboratories — a total of 253,189 tests. The state had reported a total of 247,588 tests in Thursday’s update — a difference of 5,601 tests.

The LDH also reported Friday 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.