Hospitalizations and active cases decreased in Arkansas on Wednesday, although overall case numbers continue to rise across the state.
The Arkansas Department of Heath reported a substantial drop in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, with a decrease of 86 from Tuesday’s report. In total, there are currently 1,179 COVID-related hospitalizations in Arkansas. There have been 12,982 total hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic.
Despite the decrease in hospitalizations, ventilator use rose on Wednesday. The health department reported three more ventilator usages, bringing the state’s total to 212. There have been 1,374 reported ventilator usages due to COVID-19 to date.
Active cases also dropped on Wednesday, falling by 549 to a total of 20,391. This decrease was driven by 668 active cases being removed from the active case count. There were 119 probable active cases added. This brings the number of confirmed and probable active cases to 14,613 and 5,778, respectively.
“We again saw a decrease in active cases across the state today. This is the fourth consecutive day of a decline, and we have over 4,700 fewer active cases than this time last week. It’s up to each of us to ensure we stay on this trend and defeat this virus,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement.
Across Arkansas, the case count still rose despite the active case count declining. There were 1,490 new confirmed cases on Wednesday, as well as 1,030 probable new cases, bringing the state’s total to 276,114 since the pandemic’s beginning.
COVID-related deaths also rose by 55, for a total death count of 4,441. Of the new deaths, 36 have been confirmed and 19 were probable COVID-related deaths.
The Department of Health reported that there have been 164,699 total vaccine doses given out as of Wednesday, an increase of 17,090 from the previous day. This represents 52.8 percent of the 312,225 doses received so far.
The long-term care vaccine distribution, which has been administered through a contract with CVS and Walgreens, has had a significantly lower percentage of vaccines distributed. The state reports that only 13.8 percent of vaccines have been given as of Wednesday. In total, there have been 49,400 vaccine doses allocated for the long-term care distribution but only 6,816 have been given out.
READ MORE: Battlefield Promotion: For Dr. Jose Romero, There’s ‘No Time to Be Overwhelmed’