State's active covid cases fall below 20,000 for first time in 6 weeks

Barbara McDonald, an advanced practice registered nurse for UAMS, screens patients Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020 during a drive-thru covid-19 testing at the Lonoke Community Center. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)
Barbara McDonald, an advanced practice registered nurse for UAMS, screens patients Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020 during a drive-thru covid-19 testing at the Lonoke Community Center. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)

The total number of active coronavirus cases in Arkansas declined by 188 on Saturday to 19,919, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.

The last time Arkansas reported fewer than 20,000 active coronavirus cases was Dec. 10.

The state’s daily tally of new coronavirus cases hit one of its lowest levels so far this year on Saturday as the Health Department reported 1,613 new cases, down from Friday's 2,162. Saturday's tally was also down from the previous Saturday's 2,543.

Arkansas has now tallied 282,995 cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic reached the state in March.

Coronavirus deaths also sharply declined from Friday, reaching their lowest daily total of the year. The state recorded 14 additional deaths from covid-19, down from 53 the day before, according to the Health Department. It was the lowest daily total since the three covid-19 deaths reported the day after Christmas.

The total number of coronavirus deaths in the state since March was 4,563 as of Saturday afternoon, according to Health Department data.

“We continue to see a declining number of cases,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a tweet. “Let’s work hard to keep our trend going in the right direction. It takes all of us to follow the guidelines and to be successful.”

Hospitalizations fell for the fourth consecutive day, dropping by 48 to 1,094. The number of covid-19 patients on ventilators decreased by nine to 184.

Pulaski County ranked first with 257 new cases, followed by Washington County with 159 and Benton County with 150.

Health care providers administered an additional 11,258 doses of covid-19 vaccines Saturday, bringing the total doses administered since Dec. 14, when the state began inoculations, to 205,089.

That figure represents nearly 61% of the more than 337,000 doses of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines that Arkansas has received. Data compiled by The New York Times ranked Arkansas 11th nationwide as of Saturday afternoon in terms of the total number of doses used. West Virginia and North Dakota tied for first, both administering 80% of their vaccine allocations.

Late Friday, the Health Department announced a reallocation of about 40,000 surplus doses flagged for long-term-care facility residents and staffs.

Those doses will be added over the next week to the state’s weekly allocation from the federal government of about 37,000 doses, enabling pharmacies and hospitals in Arkansas to further speed up vaccine injections.

Additional coverage in Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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