Arkansas' death toll from the coronavirus topped 5,000 Thursday as the spread of the virus showed signs of accelerating for the second day in a row.
Also Thursday, data provided by the state Department of Health showed that Franklin County in western Arkansas had the state's largest percentage of residents age 16 or older who had received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine -- almost 16%.
The rate was above 14% in two other counties, Cleveland and Craighead, and above 13% in five others, including Pulaski County.
Only two counties, Hempstead and Miller, had rates below 4%, a level that state officials have used as a benchmark for identifying counties with low rates as they decide where to send more shipments of vaccines.
The death toll, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by 24, to 5,009 Thursday.
The count of deaths passed the 5,000 mark just 26 days after it topped 4,000 and one day after the state's cumulative count of cases rose above 300,000.
The state's first virus deaths were reported March 24, less than two weeks after the first patient in the state tested positive.
The death toll rose past 1,000 on Sept. 15, 2,000 on Nov. 3, 3,000 on Dec. 15, and 4,000 on Jan. 9.
On Thursday, the state's count of cases rose by 2,469, to 302,899.
That was a larger increase than the one the day before and more than 500 cases than were added to the state's tallies the previous Thursday, Jan. 28.
After rising Wednesday, the number of people hospitalized with covid-19 in the state fell by 69, to 815.
But the number of patients who were on ventilators rose by three, to 145.
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"The best news today is that our hospitalizations decreased by 69; but it is disappointing that our deaths because of COVID-19 have now exceeded 5,000 Arkansans," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement.
"Our heart goes out to those families who have lost loved ones. All of this is a reminder that our actions make a difference."
Although the state's average daily case increases and number of hospitalized virus patients remain well below the levels they reached in early January, Thursday was the second day in a row when the increase in the state's case count was larger than the one a week earlier.
"That is concerning," state Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said.
"I think we'll just have to watch it to see if we end with another trend up or if we're able to turn that around."
The average number of cases added to the state's tallies each day over a rolling seven-day period rose by 82, to 1,720.
Dillaha said crossing the 5,000-death threshold was "a very kind of sad landmark," and the increase in cases was higher than she'd like, but she was encouraged by the drop in hospitalized patients and noted that the number of deaths reported Thursday was "somewhat lower than we have seen in the last several days."
All of the deaths reported Thursday happened within the past month, she said.
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VACCINATION RATES
According to Health Department data, provided to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in response to a state Freedom of Information Act request, the counties where at least 13% of residents 16 and older had received at least one dose of vaccine as of Thursday morning also included Bradley, Clay, Drew and Izard.
Statewide, about 11.5% of residents 16 and older had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 3.2% had received two doses.
The population percentages showing how many received at least one dose in some of the state's largest counties included 7.5% in Benton County, 9.2% in Washington County, 8.7% in Sebastian County, 11.8% in Faulkner County, 12.6% in Saline County and just under 12% in Garland County.
This week, Dillaha has said, the state directed extra doses to two counties -- Jefferson and Crittenden -- where fewer than 4% of residents had received at least one dose of vaccine.
By Thursday, the percentages had risen to 8.9% in Jefferson County and 5.8% in Crittenden County.
The rates in other counties also appeared to have improved.
According to data presented at an Arkansas Pharmacists Association video conference Sunday, 16 counties had rates below 4%.
Hempstead and Miller counties were the only ones with percentages that low as of Thursday, according to the Health Department data.
"We regularly assess the percent population in the counties that have been vaccinated in order to avoid the creation of disparities between counties, and when we see that a county is falling behind, then we make an effort to provide those counties with additional doses," Dillaha said.
She noted that populations eligible for the vaccine aren't evenly distributed across counties. For instance, hospital workers were among the first to become eligible for the shots, and some counties have a higher percentage of residents who work at hospitals than others.
John Vinson, chief executive of the pharmacists association, noted that the Health Department doesn't get information about Arkansans who are vaccinated in other states.
That's affected the rates in Miller and Crittenden counties, where some people work at hospitals across the state line, he said.
PULASKI COUNTY DOSES
Although the total amount of vaccine allocated to the state increased this week, some counties received more than they did last week, and others received less.
Pulaski County's allotment of doses to provide the initial shots of the two-dose regimens fell from 5,950 last week to 5,200 doses this week.
The amount going to hospitals in the county rose by 975, to 2,925, but the amount going to pharmacies fell by 1,725 to 2,275.
Remedy Drug in Little Rock got 40 doses designated for initial shots, down from 100 in previous weeks, said Laura Lumsden, one of the pharmacies' owners.
Like many other pharmacies in the state, she said she has hundreds of names on a waiting list for the shots.
"If there was vaccine to be had, we would be ready to put it in an arm, but I certainly understand the rationale of diversifying it throughout the state," Lumsden said.
She added that her pharmacy had administered 120 booster shots this week to people who had already received their initial doses.
And on Thursday, she said her pharmacy helped another pharmacy that had a larger supply of vaccine give shots to more than 200 people at a Little Rock retirement community where Remedy drug administers flu shots every year.
"It's fun to be part of the solution," Lumsden said.
"We're enthusiastically and tirelessly trying to get this thing behind us."
Meanwhile, the Arkansas Health Care Association announced Thursday that residents and workers at all of the state's 416 licensed long-term-care facilities had been offered the vaccine, and many had begun receiving second doses.
"As we continue to battle COVID-19 across the state, we are incredibly thankful to have partnerships with local pharmacies who helped make it possible for us to meet the February 1 goal," Rachel Bunch, the association's executive director, said in a news release.
VACCINATIONS REPORTED
Pharmacies, hospitals and other providers participating in the vaccine effort being coordinated by the state reported having received a total of 536,825 doses as of Thursday morning, up 17,600 from the total as of a day earlier.
They reported having administered 329,521 of those, up 13,037 from the number reported Wednesday.
In addition, Walgreens and CVS reported having administered 18,285 doses, an increase of 746 from the total as of a day earlier.
The two pharmacy chains were allocated 49,400 doses of the Moderna vaccine for residents and workers in Arkansas long-term-care facilities as part of a federal program.
Walgreens, however, made some doses available to eligible members of the broader public last week after it was discovered that the companies had more than they needed to cover the facilities.
About 3,000 doses were scheduled to become available at CVS stores in Springdale, Van Buren and Russellville starting today.
On its website, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 266,563 Arkansans had received at least one dose as of Thursday, an increase of 10,256 from the number it reported a day earlier.
The number of Arkansans who had received two doses rose by 5,422, to 68,778.
The number who had received at least one dose represents about 8.8% of the state's population.
That was the 12th-highest percentage among the states and District of Columbia.
The 2.3% of Arkansas residents who had received both doses was the 22nd-highest percentage.
Nationally, 8.4% of people had received at least one dose, and 2% had received both doses.
The number of doses reported to have been delivered and administered includes some booster shots for people who already received the first shot.
The actual number of shots given is higher than the Health Department's figures because providers have three days to report the doses they administer.
ACTIVE CASES RISE
The cases that were added to the state's tallies Thursday included 1,894 that were confirmed through polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests.
The other 575 were "probable" cases, which include those identified through less-sensitive antigen tests.
The state's cumulative count of cases rose to 302,899.
That comprised 240,959 confirmed cases and 61,940 probable ones.
The number of cases that were considered active rose by 459, to 16,992, as 1,986 Arkansans were newly classified as having recovered.
Pulaski County had the largest number of new cases, 349, followed by Garland County, which had 203; Benton County, which had 178; Washington County, which had 154; and Faulkner County, which had 124.
Among prison and jail inmates, the Health Department's count of cases rose by 19.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said the number of cases among inmates rose by five, to 142, at the Northeast Arkansas Community Correction Center in Osceola; by four, to 633, at the Tucker Unit in Jefferson County; and by two, to 1,541 at the Ouachita River Unit in Malvern.
The Omega Supervision Sanction Center in Malvern and the Wrightsville Unit each had one new case.
Among those prisons, the Osceola lockup had the largest number of cases that were active, 46, followed by the Omega center, which had 15.
The state's death toll rose by 19, to 4,013, among confirmed cases and by five, to 996, among probable cases.
Among nursing home and assisted living facility residents, the state's count of virus deaths rose by seven, to 1,918.
The number of people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with the virus grew by 89, to 13,902.
The number of the state's virus patients who have ever been on a ventilator with the virus rose by nine, to 1,449.