Day’s cases rise by 161 in Arkansas

3 more hospitalizations, 2 more deaths reported

In a break with a recent upward trend, Arkansas’ count of coronavirus cases rose Wednesday by 161, the first daily increase in four days that was smaller than the one a week earlier.

After not changing a day earlier, the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 rose by three, to 50.

The state’s death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, rose by two, to 11,377.

The increase in cases on Wednesday was smaller by 51 than the one on Tuesday and by 31 than the one the previous Wednesday.

The average daily increase in the state’s case count over a rolling seven-day period fell to 122, which was still up from an average of 86 a day the previous week.

Already at its highest level since March 27, the number of cases in the state that were considered active rose by 56, to 1,372, as new cases outpaced recoveries and deaths.

Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the Health Department’s chief medical officer, said it’s possible an uptick in cases, initially sparked by gatherings over Easter weekend, was beginning to taper off.

“Easter was kind of a big weekend, and there were lots of family gatherings and larger groups, potentially, so that may have contributed to the swell,” Dillaha said.

“Now there’s less of that, so over a period of time the spread has decreased a little bit.”

She said the Health Department, which stopped conducting contact tracing in January, hadn’t been able to determine the cause of a spike in infections in Greene County, which has contributed an outsized share of the state’s new case numbers in recent days.

On Wednesday, the northeast Arkansas county had 13 new cases, the third-highest

number in the state behind Pulaski County, which had 24, and Benton County, which had 19.

The state’s 15th- largest county by population, Greene County continued to have the state’s second-highest active case total, 119, which was up from 118 as of Tuesday.

Pulaski County, with 286 active cases as of Wednesday, continued to have the highest total. Benton and Washington counties were tied for the third-highest with 114 active cases each.

“It could be that they were just unfortunate enough to have the right mix of people who were infected spreading the virus in the setting of having low vaccination rates in the community,” Dillaha said of the recent Greene County spike.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 43.2% of the county’s residents had been fully vaccinated as of Wednesday.

The statewide rate was 54.3%.

Dr. Callie Talley, director of infection prevention and employee health at Arkansas Methodist Medical Center in Paragould, said in a statement the hospital is “working with the Greene County and Arkansas Health Departments to determine the epicenter of this current outbreak.”

“While the uptick is certainly concerning, we are not seeing a rapid increase of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, outpatient COVID-19 visits or hospital staff out with COVID-19,” Talley said.

“AMMC will continue monitoring data and working with local health units.”

A spokeswoman said the hospital had one covid-19 patient as of Wednesday.

MORE ON VENTILATORS

Dillaha said both of the Arkansas deaths reported Wednesday happened within the past month.

The statewide number of covid-19 patients who were on ventilators rose by one, to 11, after falling to a 23-month low a day earlier.

After dropping Tuesday to its lowest level since at least May 2020, the number who were in intensive care rose by two, to 17.

At its hospitals in Little Rock and Springdale, Arkansas Children’s had two covid-19 patients Wednesday, the same number as a day earlier, spokeswoman Hilary DeMillo said.

She said neither of the patients on Wednesday was in intensive care or on a ventilator.

VACCINATIONS UP

The state’s cumulative count of cases since March 2020 rose Wednesday to 835,408.

The Health Department’s tally of vaccine doses that had been administered rose by 4,309, which was up by more than 1,800 compared to the daily increase a week earlier.

More than half of the increase was from booster shots — either initial boosters or second ones that were approved last month for people who are 50 or older or have compromised immune systems.

The count of first doses rose by 1,190, which was larger by 749 than the increase in first doses a week earlier.

The average number of total doses administered each day over a rolling seven-day period rose to 2,266, which was slightly above the previous week’s average of 2,223 a day.

The average for first doses rose to 546, the highest average since the week ending Feb. 25.

According to the CDC, 66.6% of Arkansans had received at least one dose as of Wednesday, a percentage that hadn’t changed since Sunday.

The percentage of those fully vaccinated who had received a booster dose remained at 39.5%.

Among the states and District of Columbia, Arkansas continued to rank 37th in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one dose and 46th, ahead of Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Wyoming and Alabama, in the percentage who were fully vaccinated.

Nationally, 77.5% of people had received at least one dose, and 66.1% were fully vaccinated.

Of the fully vaccinated population nationally, 45.7% had received a booster dose.

“While the uptick is certainly concerning, we are not seeing a rapid increase of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, outpatient COVID-19 visits or hospital staff out with COVID-19.” — Dr. Callie Talley, director of infection prevention and employee health at Arkansas Methodist Medical Center in Paragould