Arkansas posted its largest daily increase in covid-19 deaths in more than three months on Wednesday, while the state's covid hospitalizations hit a 20-week high.
However, the state's total count of cases rose Wednesday by a number comparable to last Wednesday, continuing a recent plateau in newly reported infections. The Arkansas Department of Health reported 1,835 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, larger by 100 than the increase on Tuesday but larger by only 25 than the increase the previous Wednesday.
The death toll, as tracked by the state Health Department, rose by 11, to 11,654. It was the most deaths reported in a single day since April 4.
Covid hospitalizations rose Wednesday by six, to 442. They were already at their highest level since the 449 hospitalizations reported on March 1.
After falling by one a day earlier, the number of the state's virus patients who were in intensive care rose by one, returning to 72.
The number on covid patients on ventilators, which rose by one on Tuesday, remained Wednesday at 14.
Growing for the second day in a row, the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period rose to 1,360. That was still down from an average of 1,422 a day the previous week, however, and down from a recent high of 1,506 a day the week ending July 12.
The number of cases in the state that were considered active rose by 204, to 16,946, as new cases outpaced recoveries. The count remains at its highest level since Feb. 13.
Since the pandemic reached Arkansas in March 2020, the state Health Department has reported 890,943 cases of coronavirus. Of those, 862,113 are considered recovered.
More details in Thursday's Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.