Arkansas reported 68 fewer covid-19 patients hospitalized on Friday, the second consecutive daily decrease and one of the largest one-day declines ever.
However, the Arkansas Department of Health reported another 20 covid deaths, raising the state's official death toll from the disease to 9,616.
After reaching an all-time high of 1,819 on Wednesday, the number of hospitalized covid patients fell by 31 on Thursday and 68 on Friday, lowering it to 1,720. Although hospitalizations fell by 99 over the two-day period, the death toll rose by 42 over the same two days.
The state's count of cases rose by 5,660, which was smaller by 356 than the increase a day earlier. It was also less than half the size of the increase in cases reported the previous Friday.
Since Jan. 18, the number of covid-19 patients in the state’s hospitals has been above its previous peak of 1,459 in August during the surge driven by the delta variant.
During last winter’s surge, the number peaked at 1,371 in January 2021.
Because it can take several days for someone to become sick enough to be hospitalized after they’re infected, health officials have said it wouldn’t be surprising for the number of hospitalized covid-19 patients to keep rising even after new cases have peaked.
During the current surge powered by the omicron variant, the average number of daily new cases over a rolling seven-day period has mostly fallen since reaching a high of 9,122 the week ending Jan. 16.
On Friday, the average fell by more than 1,000, to 5,906, the first time it had been below 6,000 since the week ending Jan. 7.
With recoveries and deaths outpacing new cases, the number of cases in the state that were considered active fell Friday by 4,697, to 74,990. It was the sixth consecutive daily decline for the active case total after it reached a record 102,576 on Saturday.
After rising a day earlier, the number of the state's virus patients who were on ventilators fell Friday by six, to 241.
The number who were in intensive care, however, rose by six, to 501.
Since Saturday, the number in intensive care has been above its peak of 458 last winter, although it remains below the all-time high of 558 it reached in the summer of last year.
The number of covid-19 patients on ventilators peaked at 388 in the summer of last year and at 268 last winter.
Since the pandemic reached Arkansas in March 2020, the Health Department has reported 768,061 cases of covid-19. Of those, 683,227 are considered recovered.
More details in Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.