Arkansas reported no new coronavirus deaths on Friday, the first time since the day after Thanksgiving in which no deaths were linked to covid-19.
The state's death toll from the virus since March 2020, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, fell by one, to 5,661. Health Department spokesman Meg Mirivel said one death that reported earlier was determined to be unrelated to covid-19.
The state has lowered the death toll from the coronavirus twice this year. On Feb. 28, the state lowered the death toll by 174 as part of a "data clean-up," though it was unclear whether any of the deaths that day were linked to the coronavirus.
However, the decline in new coronavirus infections in Arkansas showed further signs of stalling on Friday. The number of Arkansans hospitalized with the virus jumped by 19, and active cases rose for the third consecutive day for the first time since January.
The state's count of covid-19 cases rose by 178. The increase was smaller than the one a day earlier, but larger, by 34 cases, than the one a week earlier. The higher case count came despite lower testing numbers reported by the state Health Department.
Active cases rose to 1,732, essentially wiping out the reductions since Sunday. The state has not had three consecutive days of increasing active cases since Jan. 9, when a five-day stretch of increasing cases culminated in the all-time state record of 27,822 active cases.
The number of hospitalized virus patients rose to 160, its highest level in eight days.
“We have administered 154,000 more vaccines doses since last week," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement. "36% of Arkansans 16 and older have received at least one COVID-19 shot. That's encouraging, but to achieve community immunity and beat COVID-19, we must increase those numbers.”
After hitting a low for this year of 151 on April 2, the average number of cases added to the state's tallies over a rolling seven-day period has fluctuated at a slightly higher level, rising to 161 as of Friday after a slight dip the previous day.
More details in Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.