Arkansas adds 419 cases to tally

Death toll rises by 1, hospitalizations up by 4, agency reports

The total number of covid-19 cases in Arkansas surpassed 15,500, with 419 new cases and one additional death reported by the Arkansas Department of Health between Saturday and Sunday.

The increase in cases Sunday brought the state to a total of 15,561, according to the department’s web portal tracking the outbreak.

The rise in new cases was slower than in the preceding two days but in line with the early part of last week. The state experienced 416 and 415 new cases on June 15 and on Wednesday, respectively.

The Department of Health reported an increase of 44 in the number of active cases, from 4,836 to 4,880.

The latest death occurred in Clay County. Danyelle McNeill, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health, said Sunday that she could not immediately say whether the death was related to a nursing home.

A day earlier, Clay County — located in the far northeast corner of the state and with a population of less than 15,000 — recorded its first death since the start of the outbreak.

There were 511 new cases Saturday. On Friday, the Department of Health reported a single-day record of 662 new cases in the community. When combined with cases among prisoners, Friday marked the second-highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic, with 703 new cases overall.

The number of people who have been hospitalized because of the virus increased by four between Saturday and Sunday, from 240 to 244. Likewise, the number of patients who are on ventilators increased from 59 to 62.

Northwest Arkansas continues to drive the state’s increase in new cases. The number of cases in Benton County increased by 99, from 1,904 to 2,003. Washington County added 83 new cases for a total of 2,404.

By comparison, the number of new cases in Pulaski County between Saturday and Sunday increased by 15, for a total of 1,514.

As of Sunday, Washington County still had the highest number of active cases in the state with 945, but that figure was down by 80 from the day before, according to the Department of Health’s numbers.

The poultry industry in Arkansas is still dealing with hundreds of active covid-19 cases, according to the Department of Health’s latest report on occupational clusters of the virus. Washington County had 247 active cases related to poultry businesses as of Friday, while Benton County had 134. The next-highest was Sevier County, with 51 active cases.

The single largest occupational cluster as of Friday was at a Tyson plant on Berry Street in Springdale, where a total of 225 people have tested positive for the virus.

Of those cases, 141 were active, according to the Department of Health.