State reports 19 covid deaths

Number hospitalized with virus in state drops by 28 to 351

The number of people hospitalized with covid-19 in Arkansas fell to its lowest level in almost a month on Wednesday as the state’s new case numbers continued to decline from last month’s peak.

The state also reported 19 more deaths — the most in a single day since March 25.

Arkansas’ death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose to 11,794.

State Epidemiologist Mike Cima said 14 of the deaths reported Wednesday happened within the last month.

Of the others, he said, one occurred in May, three were from June and one was from early July.

Including the deaths reported Wednesday, a total of 58 covid-19 deaths had been reported in the state over the past week — the most over a seven-day span since early April.

Because of reporting delays, as well as the amount of time it can take for someone to succumb to complications from covid-19 after being infected, it’s common for the number of deaths reported each day to continue rising after new cases and hospitalizations start to decline.

“We are on the back end of a surge,” Cima said.

“Even though hospitalizations were lower than previous peaks, it was inevitable that we were going to see an increase in deaths in some manner, and that’s kind of what we’re seeing here now.

“I think the deaths are catching up to where we were with cases and hospitalizations.”

He said the number of deaths reported each day is likely to remain elevated for “the next couple of days — maybe even a week or two,” but he didn’t expect it to approach the level it reached during previous surges.

Still, he said the number of deaths reported Wednesday “underscores that we are not at endemic levels of covid-19.”

“Covid-19 still is a deadly disease,” Cima said.

“We’re approaching 12,000

deaths just in Arkansas alone since the start of the pandemic. If you are not protected, through vaccination, primarily, this is still a deadly virus for people at risk.”

After rising by 10 on Tuesday, the number of covid-19 patients in the state’s hospitals fell Wednesday by 28, to 351, its lowest level since July 13.

The drop in the number hospitalized was tied with the one on July 21 for the largest in one day since March 6.

The state’s count of cases rose Wednesday by 1,067.

While larger by 29 than the increase on Tuesday, it was smaller by 61 than the one the previous Wednesday.

Already at its lowest level since the week ending July 5, the average daily increase in the state’s case count over a rolling seven-day period fell to 915.

Declining for the fourth straight day, the number of cases in the state that were considered active fell by 294, to 11,793, as recoveries outpaced new infections.

It was the first time the active case total had been below 12,000 since July 5.

Pulaski County had the most new cases, 151, on Wednesday, followed by Washington County with 70, Craighead County with 62 and Benton County with 42.

The state’s cumulative count of cases since March 2020 rose to 913,354.

Dropping for the third day in a row, the number of the state’s virus patients who were in intensive care fell by four, to 50, the smallest number since July 1.

The number on ventilators, which rose by one a day earlier, remained at 17.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock had 16 covid-19 patients on Wednesday, the same number as a week earlier, spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said.

She said four of the hospital’s covid-19 patients had died in the last week.

“That’s the most we’ve had since the first week in March,” she said.

She said the patients on Wednesday included one who was in intensive care. Eleven of the 16 patients had been fully vaccinated, she said.

She said she didn’t have information on whether any had received booster shots.

Meanwhile, she said 143 of UAMS’ 11,000 employees statewide were not cleared to work on-site for reasons related to covid-19, up from 137 a week earlier.

At its hospitals in Springdale and Little Rock, Arkansas Children’s had 11 covid-19 patients on Wednesday, down from 14 on Tuesday and 13 the previous Wednesday, spokeswoman Hilary DeMillo said.

‘MINI’ SURGE SEEN

In a report this week, researchers at UAMS’ Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health said Arkansas appeared to have experienced a “mini COVID surge” in hospitalizations that peaked around July 15.

Over the course of two months, the number of people hospitalized with covid-19 each week rose more than eight-fold, from 29 the week ending May 15 to 241 the week ending July 17.

The following week, 191 people were admitted to Arkansas hospitals with covid-19, according to the report.

Dated Aug. 1, the report was based on data from the Health Department through July 31 and posted to the college’s website on Tuesday.

“It is difficult to tell whether recent declines in COVID hospitalizations indicate a sustained downward trend,” the researchers wrote.

“At least three additional weeks’ data will be necessary to confirm the apparent resolution of a mini-surge in hospitalizations.”

The state’s wave of infections has been driven most recently by a strain of the omicron variant known as BA.5.

Another subvariant, BA.2.75, is “now widely circulating in India and has shown up in very small numbers in the United States,” the researchers noted.

“Because of numerous mutations, there are early indications BA.2.75 may be able to evade induced and natural immunity developed over the past two years,” the researchers wrote.

According to an online dashboard by Rajendram Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, a total of 97 cases caused by BA.2.75 had been identified in 20 states and Washington, D.C., as of Wednesday.

The dashboard didn’t list Arkansas as one of the states where the subvariant had been found.

Cima said BA.2.75 may play a role in driving up infections “as we get further away from this most recent surge” and people’s immunity from recent infections wanes.

“For right now, there’s no indication to me that it is going to play a major role in the immediate future,” he said.