The numbers of covid-19 patients in Arkansas who were hospitalized and on ventilators both fell Wednesday for the second day in a row, with the number of people on the breathing machines dropping below the peak it reached in January for the first time in more than six weeks.
The state's count of cases rose by 1,463, the eighth daily increase in a row that was smaller than the one a week earlier.
Arkansas' death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by 29, to 7,528.
In a tweet, Gov. Asa Hutchinson promoted vaccinations as a way of keeping new cases on the decline.
"Today is the first day of fall, and as the weather changes, let's continue to vaccinate so we can head off an autumn or winter surge of COVID," Hutchinson said.
"Active cases are falling but too many are dying who haven't been vaccinated. More vaccines will keep us trending in the right direction."
After falling by 34 Tuesday, the number of covid-19 patients in the state's hospitals Wednesday fell by 26, to 967, its lowest level since July 25.
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The number who were on ventilators, which fell by 11 Tuesday, dropped Wednesday by 22, to 256.
The number who were in intensive care fell for the third straight day, going from 439 as of Tuesday to 416 Wednesday.
The number of intensive care beds statewide that were unoccupied rose by three, to 65.
Covid-19 patients made up 38% of all the people who were in intensive care in the state, down from 40% Tuesday.
Already at its lowest level since the week ending July 22, the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period fell Wednesday to 1,315.
With recoveries and deaths outpacing new cases, the number of cases in the state that were considered active fell by 511, to 13,714, dropping below 14,000 for the first time since July 23.
From the all-time highs they reached last month, the number of covid-19 patients who were hospitalized and on ventilators as of Wednesday had each fallen by more than a third, while the number in intensive care was down by about 25%.
All three measures were also below the smaller peaks they reached in January during the state's winter surge, which were 1,371 for the number hospitalized, 268 for the number on ventilators and 458 for the number in intensive care.
SHOTS URGED
Jennifer Dillaha, the Health Department's chief medical officer, pointed to another indicator that she also found encouraging: During the seven-day span ending Tuesday, 9% of the state's coronavirus tests were positive, down from the 9.3% that was initially reported for the week ending Monday and a recent high of 16.3% the week ending Aug. 4.
"It tells me that the downward trend is likely to be real," rather than the result of inadequate testing, she said.
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The decline is "similar to what other locations around the world have experienced with the delta variant," she said, and could be at least partly the result of people gaining immunity through vaccinations or infection.
"We are seeing schools taking precautions with masking, and perhaps there's sufficient masking and precautions going on, along with vaccinations, to have an effect on trends," she said.
Dillaha cautioned, however, that the United Kingdom, which was hit with the delta variant before the United States, experienced a resurgence of cases after an initial peak and decline this summer.
Cases could begin ticking up in Arkansas, she said, with the arrival of a new variant or as people begin spending more time indoors as the weather gets colder.
Another concern is the potential for a more severe flu season this fall and winter after an unusually mild 2020-21 season.
Compared with last school year, Dillaha said, more children are attending classes in person this year, and not all schools have mask mandates, which may have helped dampen flu transmission last year.
"Young people are known to be very efficient spreaders of the influenza virus," she said.
She said she highly recommends that people get their flu shots before the end of October so they are protected when flu transmission starts increasing, which typically happens in November.
She said she'd also like to see the state's pace of covid-19 vaccinations increase.
"We have a long way to go before we are on the other side of this pandemic, and to better protect people until we get there, it's going to be important to have a higher proportion of our population protected through vaccination," Dillaha said.
SCHOOL CASES
On Tuesday, the board for the Bentonville School District voted to continue a mask requirement for students and employees until at least Oct. 20, while the Rogers School District's board made its mandate optional for employees and students in seventh grade and above.
The Rogers School Board also approved allowing its district's superintendent to lift its mask requirement for the remaining grades if the number of new cases among residents within the district's boundaries falls below 30 per 10,000 residents over a 14-day period.
The Bentonville board said its superintendent could also relax its policy if new cases in the Bentonville district drop below that level.
During the two-week period ending Sept. 13, the number of new cases per 10,000 residents was 51 in the Bentonville district and 48 in the Rogers district, according to the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.
As of Wednesday, no districts had reported shifts to virtual education this week stemming from virus cases or quarantines, according to the state Department of Education's Division of Elementary and Secondary Education.
In its daily coronavirus report, the Little Rock School District reported that five students and one employee had tested positive in the 24 hours ending at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
An additional 35 students and three employees were required to quarantine after being near an infected person.
Meanwhile, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville reported an uptick in its active coronavirus infections over a two-day period that ended Tuesday.
The cases increased from 89 Sunday to 95 as of Tuesday.
That was still down from the 112 cases at the university that were active as of Sept. 16, however.
The most recent total included 87 infections among students; seven among faculty and staff members, and graduate assistants; and one among others who were on campus since Jan. 1.
RANK IMPROVES
According to rankings Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Arkansas' number of new cases per 100,000 residents in the seven-day span ending Tuesday was the country's 21st-highest, down from the 20th-highest the week ending Monday, as it fell from about 325 to 320.
Arkansas' number of new deaths per 100,000 residents over seven days continued to be the country's 10th-highest, although it fell from 6.1 to 5.5.
Alabama's rate, rising from 15.1 per 100,000 residents to 18 per 100,000 residents, continued to be the highest.
The next-highest rates were in West Virginia, Idaho, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Kentucky.
Within Arkansas, Pulaski County had the most new cases Wednesday with 112, followed by Washington County with 104 and Craighead County with 80.
The state's cumulative count of cases rose to 488,316.
Dillaha said one of the deaths reported Wednesday happened in mid-July.
The others occurred within the past month, she said.
The number of people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with covid-19 rose Wednesday by 189, to 25,892.
The number who have ever been on ventilators with covid-19 rose by 22, to 2,644.
VACCINATIONS DOWN
At 6,214, the increase in vaccine doses that providers reported having administered, including second and third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, was smaller by more than 1,300 than on the previous Wednesday.
After rising a day earlier, the average number of doses administered each day over a rolling seven-day period fell to 6,017, its lowest level since the week ending July 16.
According to the CDC, the number of Arkansans who had received at least one vaccine dose rose Wednesday by 3,178, to 1,667,496, representing about 55.3% of the state's population.
The number who had been fully vaccinated rose by 4,680, to 1,354,516, or about 44.9% of the population.
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 42nd, ahead of Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, North Dakota, Mississippi, Alabama, Idaho, Wyoming and West Virginia, in the percentage who were fully vaccinated.
Nationally, 64% of people had received at least one dose, and 54.9% were fully vaccinated.
Information for this article was contributed by Cynthia Howell and Jaime Adame of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; and by Dave Perozek and Mary Jordan of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.