The Arkansas Department of Health over the weekend reported that more Arkansans are catching the coronavirus than recovering from it, as the number of cases considered active topped 10,000 — the first time that's happened since Feb. 20.
The number of active covid-19 cases rose Saturday by 406, to 10,001, and then again on Sunday by 140, to 10,141. A technical glitch with the state's Health Department had prevented covid numbers from updating until after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's press time Saturday.
Arkansas reported 1,395 new covid cases during the 48-hour period, as well as four deaths.
The 888 new cases reported on Saturday continued a week-to-week trend of increasing new cases on Saturdays — the number was down from a reported 1,062 new cases on Friday, but an increase from the 708 cases reported the previous Saturday.
However, Sunday's 507 new cases marked a decline from the previous Sunday, on which 575 new covid cases were reported. The last time the state Health Department reported a Sunday-to-Sunday decline in new daily cases was April 10, when 30 new cases were reported, down from 38 on April 3.
Covid-19 hospitalizations in Arkansas fell from 191 to 185 on Saturday, then rose to 188 on Sunday. The number of those patients in intensive care fell by three on Saturday, to 35, and then again by three on Sunday, to 32.
The number of Arkansas covid patients on ventilators rose by one on Saturday, to 10, and stayed at that level on Sunday.
The rolling seven-day average for new daily cases hit a four-month high on Saturday, when an average of 827 cases were reported on each of the seven days in the period. With Sunday's week-to-week decline in new daily cases, however, that seven-day average has fallen to 817.
Pulaski County was the county with the most new covid cases on both Saturday and Sunday, reporting 142 and 101 new cases on those days, respectively. On Saturday, Benton County had the second-highest number of new cases, with 58, followed by Sebastian County with 56. On Sunday, Washington County had the second-highest number of new covid cases, with 34, followed by Benton County at 30. Sebastian County on Sunday reported just 17 new covid cases, tying with Garland County for 10th place in the state.
Since the pandemic reached Arkansas in March 2020, the state Health Department has reported 861,010 cases of coronavirus. Of those, 839,071 are considered recovered.
More details in Monday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.