Coronavirus cases continue to climb in region

The number of people diagnosed with coronavirus is continuing to climb in St. Francis County, as it is across the state.

According to the Arkansas Department of Health, one in every 162 people in the state tested positive for the virus over the past week.

SFC has had 147 more residents over the past week test positive for the virus, which has claimed the lives of 20 SFC residents so far. Recoveries in

SFC are up by 304 to 2,587, and 909 additional people have tested negative for the virus.

The ADH reports Lee County has seen two more people die from the virus, bringing that county’s total to 26. There are an additional 48 confirmed cases in Lee County, with 49 additional people having recovered and 581 more testing negative for Covid19, for a total of 8,236 negative tests.

Cross County has also seen two more people die from Covid19, bringing that county’s total for Covid deaths to 36. Positive cases of the virus have increased by 144 in Cross County over the past week, with recoveries up by 110 to 1,257. The negative tests in that county are up by 711 to 11,797.

Crittenden County saw the largest increase in the number of deaths related to Covid, with four more residents dying from the

illness over the past week, bringing that county’s total of Covid deaths to 75. The positive cases have increased by 229 to 4,421, and recoveries are up by 242. That county has seen 28,463 negative tests, an increase of 1,287 over the past week.

One additional person died f rom the virus in Monroe County, bringing that county’s total Covid deaths to seven. There are 510 confirmed cases of the virus in Monroe County, an increase of 56 over the past week. There have also been 418 people recover from the illness and 5,154 test negative for it, an increase of 825 over the past week.

Woodruff County has 394 confirmed cases of the virus, which has claimed the lives of two residents of that county. There have been 311 Woodruff County residents recover from the virus and 5,206 people test negative for it.

Phillips County’s death toll has increased by three to a total of 25. That county has 1,296 confirmed cases of the virus, which is an increase of 59 over the past week. That county has also seen 1,176 people recover from Covid- 19 and 13,219 negative tests.

Across the state, the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients remained at a record level Sunday as the state continues to see a surge in cases.

On Sunday, there were 1,234 people hospitalized with the virus, up from Saturday's 1,216 hospitalizations.

The state also saw 2,033 more cases of the virus and 20 more deaths on Sunday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said.

Over the past two weeks, there were 1,056 new cases per 100,000 people in Arkansas, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. That ranks fifth in the country for new cases per capita, according to Johns Hopkins.