Arkansas' new covid cases fall, but average daily deaths hit new 4-month high

Sharaina Smiley, a Patient Care Technician at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff, puts on personal protective equipment, or PPE, before entering a patient's room in the covid ward of the hospital in this Feb. 18, 2022 file photo. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford)
Sharaina Smiley, a Patient Care Technician at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff, puts on personal protective equipment, or PPE, before entering a patient's room in the covid ward of the hospital in this Feb. 18, 2022 file photo. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford)

Arkansas' rolling seven-day average of new covid-19 cases fell Thursday to its lowest level since June 27. However, the rolling seven-day average of covid deaths rose to its highest level since April 8.

The state's count of cases rose Thursday by 1,265 — larger by almost 200 than the increase a day earlier, but down by 173 from the daily rise the previous Thursday. That week-to-week decrease lowered the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period to 890.

The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, rose by 10, to 11,804. The state Health Department has reported 59 covid deaths over the past week, the most for any seven-day stretch in more than four months.

Because of reporting delays, as well as the amount of time it can take for someone to succumb to complications from covid-19 after being infected, it's common for the number of deaths reported each day to continue rising after new cases and hospitalizations start to decline.

The number of people hospitalized with covid-19 in Arkansas rose Thursday for the second time in three days, even as it's still near its lowest level in almost a month. After falling by 28 on Wednesday, the number of the state's hospitalized covid patients rose Thursday by 13, to 364.

The number as of Thursday was still down by 44 from its level a week earlier. Except for Wednesday, the last time the number was lower than it was Thursday was July 13.

During the wave of infections that appears to have crested last month, the highest the number of hospitalized reached was 442 on July 20.

Already at its lowest level since June 30, the number of coronavirus cases in the state that were considered active fell Thursday by 27, to 11,766, as recoveries outpaced new infections.

After falling the previous three days, the number of the state's virus patients who were in intensive care rose Thursday by four, to 54.

The number on ventilators, which didn't change Wednesday, rose Thursday by one, to 18.

Since the pandemic reached Arkansas in March 2020, the state Health Department has reported 914,619 cases of coronavirus. Of those, 890,819 are considered recovered.

More details in Friday's Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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