Arkansas recorded 652 new cases of covid-19 Thursday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said, as well as nine more deaths, bringing the toll to 582 since the pandemic began.
The number of new cases was lower than the 703 recorded Wednesday, but higher than several other days in the past week.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases has trended down for the last five days, but Hutchinson said the trend is not guaranteed to continue.
“Just because you start a trend does not mean that trend is going to continue, but it is a good place to start,” Hutchinson said. “And it all depends upon individual actions of people in Arkansas.”
The downward trend has also coincided with fewer tests performed statewide.
Hutchinson said Thursday that 5,192 tests were done in the previous 24 hours, and in the last week or so testing has ranged from about 4,400 to about 7,000 daily.
These numbers are lower than those seen in June and July, when the number of tests performed daily was often above 5,000 and eclipsed 7,000 with some regularity.
The seven-day rolling average of the percent of covid-19 tests that come back positive has been above 10% so far this month, similar to much of July but higher than most of June.
Department of Health Secretary Dr. Jose Romero said there were 6,582 active cases of covid-19 in Arkansas as of Thursday. This included 71 cases in nursing homes, 735 in correctional facilities and 5,776 in the general population.
Of the nine deaths reported, Romero said two were delayed reports from July.
The number of patients hospitalized with the virus decreased by 13 to 473, and the number on a ventilator decreased by one to 112.
Romero said an additional 786 people recovered from covid-19, bringing the total to 44,602.
The cumulative total of confirmed covid-19 cases in the state since the pandemic began is 51,766.
EARLIER:
Gov. Asa Hutchinson and state health officials will provide an update on Arkansas' covid-19 response at 1:30 p.m.
The total number of coronavirus cases reported in Arkansas remained at 51,114 Thursday morning, according to a state website. The death toll remained at 573.
Check back to watch the live video.
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