The number of people hospitalized with covid-19 in Arkansas fell Thursday for the first time in four days, while the state's new case numbers continued to trend downward from the peak they reached last month.
The Arkansas Department of Health on Thursday reported that the number of hospitalized covid patients fell by four, to 408, after rising by double digits the previous two days. Thursday's total was still up from a recent low of 386 patients who were reported to be hospitalized on Sunday and Monday, but down from 435 the previous Thursday.
In the past five months, the highest total number of covid hospitalizations reported in Arkansas was 442 on July 20.
The state's total count of cases rose Thursday by 1,438. While larger by 310 than the increase on Wednesday, the rise on Thursday was down by 140 from the one the previous Thursday.
Since the pandemic reached Arkansas in March 2020, the state Health Department has reported 908,390 cases of coronavirus. Of those, 882,492 are considered recovered.
Declining for the third day in a row, the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period fell to 1,037, its lowest level since the week ending July 5.
With new cases outnumbering recoveries, the number of cases in the state that were considered active rose by 30, to 13,923, after falling the previous four days. The total as of Thursday was still down by more than 2,000 from its level a week earlier, however.
The number of covid-19 patients who were in intensive care rose Thursday by two, to 62, after falling by three on Wednesday.
The number of Arkansas' covid patients on ventilators, which fell the previous two days, rose by two, to 17.
Arkansas' death toll from the coronavirus, as tracked by the state Health Department, rose by nine, to 11,745.
More details in Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.