Arkansas reported its largest-ever daily increase in covid-19 deaths on Sunday, adding 289 covid-19 deaths to raise the state's official toll to 8,120.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the surge was a “data correction” that reflected covid-19 deaths since the pandemic reached the state in March 2020.
“These corrections have occurred throughout the pandemic, and today’s correction includes numbers from the beginning of COVID-19 in Arkansas,” he said.
It was the second triple-digit jump in the death toll since the pandemic began. On Sept. 16, 2020, the state added 140 “probable” covid deaths, which included victims with cases identified through less-sensitive antigen tests, or deaths in which no test was performed but covid-19 was listed on a death certificate as a contributing or underlying cause of death.
Some of those deaths were later reclassified as confirmed covid-19 deaths, while others were removed from the official covid-19 death toll. The Arkansas Department of Health notes on its daily updates that all data is subject to change.
“Case data includes confirmed and probable cases and deaths. Cases and deaths may decrease if they are reclassified,” it states.
Total active covid-19 cases across the state dropped by 237 in a 24-hour period to 7,596, according to the Health Department’s Sunday update. Active cases have dropped by 1,947 over the past week.
Hospitalizations from the virus decreased by five on Sunday, to 548. Of those patients, 161 were on ventilators, 10 fewer than Saturday.
The state has reported 502,872 covid-19 cases since March 2020. Of those, 487,028 are considered recovered.
More details in Monday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.