Arkansas on Saturday reported its fourth consecutive day in which more people were diagnosed with covid-19 than recovered from it.
However, the four days in which the state added 100 total cases followed three days during which recoveries outpaced infections by more than 800.
The Arkansas Department of Health recorded 4,926 active, or currently infectious, covid-19 cases on Saturday — up 29 from Friday. However, Saturday's number was a drop of 711 cases compared to a week earlier.
Active cases had fallen from 5,637 on Saturday, Oct. 23, to 4,826 cases on Tuesday, which is now a 17-week low. Active cases have risen each day since then.
In other Health Department data, there were seven fewer covid-19 patients in Arkansas hospitals on Saturday than Friday, and 45 fewer than on Oct. 23. Ninety Arkansans were on ventilators Saturday, the second consecutive day in which fewer than 100 people were on ventilators.
The number of patients in intensive care dropped by six to 155, continuing to be at the lowest level since July 5.
Meanwhile, vaccine doses given per day have been higher than 1,000 since Tuesday, a pattern that the state has not seen since the end of August.
“These are great signs of the work we have done so far,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson tweeted Saturday. “We must continue being vigilant and keep increasing vaccinations.”
The state has recorded 512,994 cases of covid-19 since March 2020. Of those, 8,370 Arkansans have died of the virus, including 17 recorded by the Health Department on Saturday. There have been 499,556 recoveries from the virus in Arkansas; the state is on track to have its 500,000th covid-19 recovery sometime in the next week.
More details in Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.