Arkansas' covid-19 death toll set a record high on Friday, almost two weeks after a state "data clean-up" reclassified 174 deaths previously counted as coronavirus-related.
The state's covid-19 death toll since March 2020 stood at 5,417 on Feb. 27, then fell to 5,243 on Feb. 28 after some deaths were reclassified. Friday's addition of 27 covid-19 deaths raised the state's death toll, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, to 5,437.
Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases rose Friday by 459 — the fourth consecutive daily increase that was smaller than the one a week earlier.
The numbers of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 and in intensive care units both fell Friday for the fourth consecutive day, while the number who were on ventilators fell for the second consecutive day.
“Today's report shows the continued trend of lower new cases, active cases, and hospitalizations from the prior week," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement. "We have seen an increase of nearly 110,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses in the past week, and we anticipate this number to continue to climb.”
The number who were hospitalized as of 2 p.m. Friday fell by 19 from Thursday, to 259, its lowest level since June 23.
The number who were on ventilators fell by three, to 64, while the number were in intensive care fell by nine, to 118.
The increase in cases on Friday was larger than the one the day before but was more than 100 cases smaller than the one the previous Friday, March 5.
Over a rolling seven-day period, the average number of cases added to the state's tallies each day fell by 16, to 310.
More details in Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.