With more Arkansans contracting the coronavirus than recovering from it, the number of cases in the state that were considered active rose Friday by 136, to 3,763. It's the largest total since March 3, and it's more than twice as many active cases as were reported three weeks ago.
It's part of an upward trend that began a few days after Easter.
Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases rose Friday by 391. The increase in cases was larger by 18 than the one on Thursday and by 76 than the one the previous Friday.
After rising by five on Thursday, the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 remained for a second day at 70.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, rose by three, to 11,471.
After dipping a day earlier, the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period rose to 327, its highest level since the week ending March 26.
The number of the state's virus patients who were on ventilators rose Friday to three, one day after falling to just two on Thursday. It was the first time that only two virus patients had been on ventilators since the first month of the pandemic.
Growing for the second day in a row, the number of Arkansas covid patients in intensive care rose by three, to 13.
Since the pandemic reached Arkansas in March 2020, the state Health Department has reported 842,439 cases of the coronavirus. Of those, 826,975 are considered recovered.
More details in Saturday's Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.