Credit Courtesy: Chuck Smith / Red River Radio News COVID CASES IN NW LA- According to the latest data from the Louisiana Department of Health – there’s been an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in eight of ten Northwest Louisiana parishes over the past two weeks dating to Sunday May 23rd. The most populated parishes – Caddo and Bossier showed Covid case increases of 12% and 35% respectively. The only northwest Louisiana parish to show a decrease in COVID-19 cases for the 14-day period was DeSoto Parish with a 4% drop. The increase in COVID-19 cases in the area comes just days after LSU Health Shreveport's Center for Emerging Viral Threats identified two specimens that were B.1.617.2 variants in the area, often referred as the “The Indian Variant” and is believed to be more transmissible than earlier variants.