New covid cases in Arkansas up 190

Hospitalizations in state fall back to lowest level for year; deaths rise by 4

The uptick in Arkansas’ new covid-19 cases resumed Thursday, with the state’s case count rising by 190, even as the number of people hospitalized in the state with the virus fell back to its lowest level so far this year.

The state’s death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, rose by four, to 11,381.

The increase in cases was larger by 29 than the one on Wednesday and by 44 than the one the previous Thursday.

After dipping a day earlier, the average daily increase in the state’s case count over a rolling seven-day period rose to 128, its highest level since the week ending March 29.

With new cases outpacing recoveries and deaths, the number of cases that were considered active rose by 90, to 1,462, the largest number since March 23.

The increase in total cases was the seventh in nine days that was larger than the one a week earlier, continuing an uptick that began after Easter weekend.

State Epidemiologist Mike Cima said the smaller number of cases added Wednesday, which interrupted the upward trend, was “probably just an artifact of reporting.”

When cases are examined by the date of the test result, rather than the day the result was submitted to the Health Department, the trajectory of new cases appears to be upward, he said.

The state’s covid-19 hospitalizations, however, “continue at a low level,” Cima said.

“We just had a major spike in which a large swath of the population was infected, so there is some residual immunity from that,” he said, referring to the surge of infections from the omicron variant that peaked in January.

Vaccinations and treatments, such as Pfizer’s Paxlovid pill, have also helped keep hospitalizations down, he said.

While hospitalizations nationally have been rising, Cima said the increase has been “very gradual and not at all what we’ve seen in previous waves.”

“We just had a major spike in which a large swath of the population was infected, so there is some residual immunity from that.” — Mike Cima, state epidemiologist

“I would expect something similar to happen here,” Cima said. “We may see some increase in hospitalizations, but I really don’t expect it to take off.”

He said only one of the deaths reported Thursday happened within the past month. Of the others, one was from January and two were from February.

After growing by three a day earlier, the number of virus patients in the state’s hospitals fell Thursday by four, to 46. That was tied with the reported number hospitalized on Sunday and April 19 for the lowest so far this year.

The number who were on ventilators rose by one for the second day in a row, going from 11 as of Wednesday to 12.

After rising by two a day earlier, the number who were in intensive care fell by one, to 16.

At its hospitals in Little Rock and Springdale, Arkansas Children’s had four covid-19 patients on Thursday, up from two a day earlier, spokeswoman Hilary DeMillo said.

MAP IS UPDATED

Meanwhile, an update on Thursday to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s map of “covid-19 community levels” didn’t result in any changes in Arkansas.

For the fifth week in a row, Pulaski, Faulkner, Lonoke, Saline, Conway, Grant, Prairie, Perry and Van Buren counties were labeled as having a “medium” covid-19 level.

The level in the state’s other 66 counties remained “low” for the second straight week.

It was the fourth week in a row that no county in the state was labeled as having a “high” covid-19 level, which triggers a recommendation that people wear masks in indoor public places.

Unveiled in late February, the levels are based on a county’s new cases, covid-19 hospital admissions and the percentage of hospital beds that are occupied by covid-19 patients.

In counties with a medium covid-19 level, the CDC recommends people who are immunocompromised or at high risk of severe covid-19 talk to their health care providers about whether they should wear masks or take other precautions.

People in medium-level counties also should consider wearing masks around people who have a high risk of severe illness, according to the CDC.

In counties with low covid- 19 levels, the CDC doesn’t have a recommendation about whether people should wear masks.

CASES BY COUNTY

Pulaski County had the most new cases, 31, on Thursday, followed by Benton County with 23 and Washington County with 19.

Greene County, which recently has had some of the state’s highest new case numbers, had just four on Thursday.

In the number of cases considered active, the northeast Arkansas county fell from having the second-highest total as of Wednesday to having the fourth-highest as its number dropped from 119 to 114.

Pulaski County had the largest active case total, 301, on Thursday, followed by Benton County with 132 and Washington County with 123.

The state’s cumulative count of cases since March 2020 rose to 835,598.

VACCINATIONS UP

The Health Department’s tally of vaccine doses that had been administered rose by 2,113, which was up by 25 from the daily increase a week earlier.

Almost half the latest increase was from doses classified on the Health Department’s coronavirus dashboard as not having an “available dose number.”

That’s how the department is listing second booster doses, which were authorized late last month for people who are 50 or older or have compromised immune systems.

The count of doses for people receiving the vaccine for the first time rose by 430, which was up by 44 from the increase in first doses a week earlier.

Growing for the second day in a row, the average number of total doses administered each day over a rolling seven- day period rose to 2,269, which was up from 2,140 a day the previous week.

Already at its highest level since the week ending Feb. 25, the average for first doses rose to 553.

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

The percentage who had been fully vaccinated rose from 54.3% as of Wednesday to 54.4%.

Of those who were fully vaccinated, 39.6% had received a booster dose as of Thursday, up from 39.5% a day earlier.

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, 77.6% 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.