139 covid-19 cases, 4 deaths reported

Hospitalizations, active infections rise; number on ventilators unchanged

In another departure from the general upward trend since a few days after Easter weekend, Arkansas’ count of coronavirus cases rose Friday by 139, the second daily increase in three days that was smaller than the one a week earlier.

After falling a day earlier to its lowest level so far this year, the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 rose by five, to 51.

The state’s death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, rose by four, to 11,385.

“We’ve been calling it a ‘swell’ of cases. It varies some from day to day,” Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the Health Department’s chief medical officer, said.

“We have seen that in other states, and then it plateaued and has gone down, so we’re hoping that in Arkansas we will experience the same type of pattern.”

The increase in cases on Friday was smaller by 51 than the one on Thursday and by 26 than the one the previous Friday.

The average daily increase in the state’s case count over a rolling seven-day period fell to 125, which was still up from an average of 107 a day the previous week.

With new cases outpacing recoveries and deaths, the number of cases in the state that were considered active rose by 36, to 1,498, the largest number since March 22.

Dillaha said it’s hard to tell whether the recent uptick in new cases is starting to level off, but she’s “not worried about a continued upward trend at this point.”

“It might go up a little bit, down a little bit, up a little bit, down a little bit for a while — at least that’s what my hope is it’s going to do, and not continue to go up and up,” Dillaha said.

She said the state’s active case total, while higher than its been in several weeks, is “still pretty low,” and the number of hospitalized patients “is not a strain on our hospitals at all.”

“I feel fairly good about where we are right now in terms of the overall severity of the pandemic,” Dillaha said.

“It’s much better than where we were some months ago.”

She said all four of the deaths reported Friday happened more than a month ago. Three occurred in February, she said, and one was from March.

After rising by one a day earlier, the number of the state’s virus patients who were on ventilators remained Friday at 12.

The number who were in intensive care also didn’t change, remaining at 16 after falling by one on Thursday.

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

She said none of the patients on Friday were in intensive care or on ventilators.

CASES BY COUNTY

Benton County had the most new cases, 21, on Friday, followed by Pulaski County with 18, Washington County with 15 and Craighead County with 12.

Greene County, a recent hot spot for new cases, had the fifth-highest number, 10, on Friday.

The state’s 15th largest county by population, Greene County continued to have the fourth-highest number of cases that were active, although its number fell by one, to 113, from Thursday to Friday.

With 299 active cases as of Friday, Pulaski County continued to have the largest total, followed by Benton County with 147 and Washington County with 129.

The statewide cumulative count of cases since March 2020 rose Friday to 835,737.

MASK GUIDANCE

Although the state’s new case numbers and other covid-19 metrics remain relatively low, Dillaha said Arkansans “do need to maintain concern about covid, because it’s here to stay.”

“What we would like people to do is stay informed and incorporate current information into their decision making about how they conduct their daily lives,” Dillaha said.

For instance, she said they could consult the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Prevention’s map of “covid-19 community levels” to see whether mask wearing is recommended in a particular county.

Under the latest weekly update on Thursday, nine counties clustered around Central Arkansas were considered to have a “medium” covid-19 level, meaning people may want to consider wearing masks in indoor public places if they are immunocompromised, at risk of severe covid-19 or are around people with a high risk of severe illness.

The remaining 66 counties had a “low” level.

In those counties, the CDC doesn’t have a recommendation about whether people should wear masks. Dillaha said people in those counties may still choose to wear one, especially if they or someone they live with is at risk of severe illness.

People might also want to wear a mask if they’re planning a trip or to attend an event and don’t want a covid-19 diagnosis to get in the way, she said.

For those who haven’t already been vaccinated, she said, “this is the ideal time” to start a two-dose regimen.

That’s because people can wait eight weeks between their first and second doses, instead of the usual three or four weeks, and “have a much lower chance of getting infected” in between the two doses, she said.

The longer period between the first and second doses has been shown in other countries to improve protection, Dillaha has said, and it reduces the risk of heart inflammation, a rare side effect most common in young men and teenage boys.

VACCINATIONS DOWN

The Health Department’s tally of vaccine doses that had been administered rose Friday by 2,398, which smaller by 207 than 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 488, which was smaller by 38 than the increase in first doses a week earlier.

After rising the previous three days, the average number of total doses administered each day over a rolling seven-day period fell to 2,240, which was still up from an average of 1,961 a day the previous week.

The average for first doses, which on Thursday had been at its highest level in two months, fell to 547.

According to the CDC, 66.7% of Arkansans had received at least one dose as of Friday, up from 66.6% a day earlier.

The percentage who had been fully vaccinated remained at 54.4%.

Of those who were fully vaccinated, the percentage who had received a booster dose remained at 39.6%.

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, 45.8% had received a booster dose.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette