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The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals dropped below 900 Thursday, according to statistics released Thursday by the Louisiana Department of Health.

The LDH said at noon Thursday that the state had 884 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and 107 of those patients required ventilators. On Wednesday, the state reported 931 hospitalizations and 110 ventilators in use.

The state said Thursday that there had been 36,504 cases of COVID-19 reported, with 2,506 deaths. On Wednesday, there had been 35,316 cases and 2,485 deaths reported.

The increase between Wednesday’s statewide update and Thursday’s update was an additional 1,188 cases and an additional 21 deaths. However, the LDH also announced that 682 of those new cases (62 percent) are from commercial laboratories that are reporting for the first time — some of those cases being reported may be from as far back as March 25.

Washington Parish had reported 383 cases and 36 deaths, according to the Thursday update. On Wednesday, the parish had reported 376 cases and 36 deaths.

There had been 1,599 cases in St. Tammany Parish, with 154 deaths (an additional 27 cases and three deaths compared to Wednesday), and 767 cases in Tangipahoa Parish, with 31 deaths (an additional 15 cases and one additional death compared to Wednesday).

Washington Parish had reported 2,968 COVID-19 tests, as of Thursday’s update — an increase of 100 tests compared to Wednesday’s report.

In Thursday’s update, the LDH said that 13,568 tests had been reported from the state laboratory, and an additional 291,813 tests had been reported from commercial laboratories — a total of 305,381 tests. The state had reported a total of 285,970 tests in Wednesday’s update — a difference of 19,411 tests.

This was the largest single daily increase in new tests since the LDH has been reporting COVID-19 statistics, but it should also be noted that the tests come from several laboratories that had previously yet to report to the LDH. The previous high was April 14, when the LDH reported 10,331 new tests. The state first reported testing statistics on March 9.

The LDH reported Thursday that there are 26,249 presumed recovered cases of COVID-19, as of its May 16 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 10, with 22,608 presumed recovered cases — a difference of 3,641 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.