PATIENTS GETTING hospital care at highest levels since midMarch in Arkansas.

Tallies at hospitals increase; active covid cases top 2,300

The number of covid-19 patients in Arkansas hospitals, on ventilators and in intensive care units all rose to their highest levels Thursday since mid-March, while the state’s count of cases rose by 288.

With new cases outpacing recoveries, the number of cases in the state that were considered active topped 2,300 for the first time since March 22.

The state death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by two, to 5,869.

“Our new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to increase,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a tweet.

“We have seen the effect that vaccines have on both of these numbers, and we know these vaccines work. It’s critical that Arkansans continue to get the vaccine to help control this virus.”

The number of virus patients in the state’s hospitals rose by eight, to 219, while the number who were on ventilators rose by six, to 56.

The number of covid-19 patients in intensive care units rose by four, to 116.

It was the highest level since March 19 for the number hospitalized, since March 16 for the number on ventilators and since March 17 for the number in intensive care units.

Back then, the state’s case numbers were trending downward after peaking in January.

More recently, however, they have been ticking up, with health officials citing infections of unvaccinated people during gatherings over Memorial Day weekend, the spread of more-transmissible variants and the lifting of mask requirements and other preventive measures as possible reasons.

“It’s a slow trend, but it’s moving in the wrong direction,” state Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said Thursday.

The increase in total cases on Thursday, however, was smaller by one than the one the previous Thursday, making it the first daily case increase in eight days that was smaller than the one a week earlier.

It was exactly the same size as the increase in total cases Wednesday.

A day after rising to its highest level in almost three months, the average daily increase in the state’s case count over a rolling seven-day period remained essentially unchanged at 247.

The number of cases that were considered active rose by 83, to 2,334.

The percentage of the state’s coronavirus tests that are positive has also been inching up.

During the week that ended Wednesday, 6.6% of the state’s polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, and antigen tests were positive, Dillaha said.

That was the highest percentage, she said, since the week ending Feb. 26, when 6.9% of the state’s tests were positive.

Hutchinson has said he wants to keep the percentage below 10%.

‘RESURGENCE’ OF PATIENTS

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Chancellor Cam Patterson warned that the state “may well be looking at another crest of COVID-19 infections as we move into the early fall, but this time with COVID-19 variants that cause more harm.”

He said UAMS Medical Center has been seeing “a resurgence of seriously ill patients infected with COVID-19.”

“Our COVID-19 patient census is growing again, & ominously the patients are trending younger & sicker than earlier in the pandemic,” Patterson, a cardiologist, tweeted.

He said the doubling of the number of covid-19 patients in the state’s intensive care units over the past two months indicates “we as a state are going in the wrong direction, despite the amazing vaccines that are now readily available but not broadly accepted.”

“But there is probably more to it than this,” he continued.

“We are seeing more patients in their 40s & 50s & 20s & even late teens in our ICUs who are infected with COVID-19, which suggests that the virus itself has changed,” Patterson tweeted.

He noted that the delta variant, which first emerged in India and later became the dominant virus strain in the United Kingdom, is circulating in Arkansas.

It’s known to be more transmissible as well as to have “more devastating consequences especially in younger individuals,” Patterson said.

“It has been heartbreaking for me to see young mothers & fathers in our ICUs requiring mechanical support because of COVID-19 infection,” he said.

In addition to harming communities and families, he said the virus is imposing a “financial burden” on health care providers and stressing the state’s health care system.

He added that Arkansas could end up being seen as a “dirty” state with respect to covid-19, which he said would have “enormous implications for new business growth, recruitment & all the things that make our state a destination for new business opportunities.”

DAILY DEATHS

One indicator that hasn’t risen to its level from mid-March is the number of covid-19-related deaths reported each day.

During the week ending Thursday, the state averaged just under two deaths per day.

In March, the average ranged from about 23 a day the week ending March 13 to about eight per day later in the month.

Dillaha said the state’s increases in deaths tend to lag behind cases and hospitalizations, in part because deaths sometimes aren’t reported to the department until weeks or even months after they happen.

More effective treatments for infections and the vaccination of much of the state’s elderly population could also be helping to keep the daily death toll lower.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 64.7% of Arkansans age 65 and older had been fully vaccinated as of Thursday.

For those under 65, the percentage was just 26.3%.

The vast majority of Arkansas’ infections have been among people who weren’t vaccinated.

Of the more than 900,000 Arkansans who had been fully vaccinated as of earlier this month, just 771 had tested positive two weeks or more after receiving their final vaccine dose, Dillaha said.

That’s about 0.5% of the more than 150,000 people in the state who have tested positive since the state’s first vaccine doses were administered, on Dec. 14.

VACCINATIONS DOWN

The pace of the state’s vaccinations has been slowing, however.

At 5,388, the increase Thursday in the number of vaccine doses Arkansas providers reported having administered, including second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, was smaller by 993 than the increase the previous Thursday, according to Health Department figures.

The average number of doses administered each day over a rolling seven-day period fell to just over 5,100, down from more than 5,700 a day

the previous week.

The average peaked at more than 23,000 a day in early April before declining to a recent low of fewer than 4,700 a day the week ending June 5, which included Memorial Day.

According to the CDC, the number of Arkansans of all ages who had received at least one vaccine dose rose Thursday by 2,818, to 1,234,029, representing about 40.9% of the state’s population.

The number who had been fully vaccinated rose by 3,805, to 993,850, or about 32.9% of the state’s population.

Among the states and District of Columbia, Arkansas continued to rank 45th in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one dose and 49th, ahead of only Alabama and Mississippi, in the percentage who were fully vaccinated.

Nationally, 53% of people had received at least one dose and 44.5% were fully vaccinated.

CASES BY COUNTY

The cases that were added to Arkansas’ tallies on Thursday included 213 that were confirmed through PCR tests.

The other 75 were “probable” cases, which include those identified through antigen tests.

The state’s cumulative count of cases rose to 344,945.

Pulaski County had the most new cases, 37, followed by Washington County, which had 23, and Faulkner County, which had 16.

Among prison and jail inmates, the Health Department’s count of cases rose by two.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said the state’s prisons didn’t have any new cases Thursday.

The state’s death toll rose by one, to 4,658, among confirmed cases and by one, to 1,211, among probable cases.

Among nursing home and assisted living facility residents, the state’s count of virus deaths remained at 2,091.

The number of people who have ever been hospitalized with confirmed infections in the state rose by 25, to 16,642.

The number who have ever been on a ventilator rose by two, to 1,696.