Active cases in state decrease by 69; death toll up 1

Registered nurses Amanda Velasquez (left) and Ursula Dixon take swabs from a couple in April 2020 at a drive-up coronavirus testing site at Arkansas Surgical Hospital in North Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo)
Registered nurses Amanda Velasquez (left) and Ursula Dixon take swabs from a couple in April 2020 at a drive-up coronavirus testing site at Arkansas Surgical Hospital in North Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo)

Arkansas' tally of active covid-19 cases fell by 69 on Sunday as the Arkansas Department of Health reported for the first time that more than 1 million Arkansans had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

The official number of active cases dropped to 1,922, even as 64 new cases were reported, according to the Health Department's daily update.

One new death was reported, raising the official tally of Arkansans who have died from the virus since March 2020 to 5,718.

The total number of people hospitalized increased by four Sunday to 152. One more person was on a ventilator Sunday.

Pulaski County had the most new confirmed cases with 15, followed by Washington County with 13 and Benton County with six.

Around 9,170 more doses of the vaccine were given, with 6,538 more people becoming fully immunized. As of Sunday's report, 695,341 people are fully immunized and 306,551 are partially so, for a total of 1,001,892 Arkansans.

"The number of vaccine doses administered yesterday is significantly higher than last Sunday's report. Let's continue this increase in vaccinations into the rest of this week," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said via social media Sunday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reported last week that Arkansas passed the 1 million mark, and Hutchinson on Thursday celebrated that milestone. Sheryl Moore, a student at Shorter College in North Little Rock, became the ceremonial "millionth" person in the state to receive a vaccine dose.

Numbers from the Health Department have lagged numbers from the CDC.

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