The Arkansas Department of Health on Thursday reported that just two of the state's covid-19 patients were on ventilators, down from three a day earlier.
Before this week, the number had not fallen below five since March 2020, the first month of the pandemic in Arkansas.
However, the total number of hospitalized covid patients rose Thursday by five, to 70. It was the first increase after two days of declining numbers.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Health Department, rose Thursday by seven, to 11,468.
Arkansas' total count of coronavirus cases rose Thursday by 373. The Health Department had reported 403 new cases on May 19, making Thursday's daily increase the first in more than two weeks that was smaller than the increase a week earlier.
It followed a spike of 556 cases on Wednesday, which was the largest one-day rise in more than two months.
The average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period fell from 320 as of Wednesday to 316, which was still up from an average of 266 a day the previous week.
Already at its highest level since March 4, the number of cases in the state that were considered active rose by 91, to 3,627, as new cases outnumbered recoveries.
The number of the state's virus patients who were in intensive care rose Thursday by one, to 10. The number had fallen Wednesday into the single digits for the first time since at least May 2020.
More details in Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.