Another record reached for COVID-19 hospitalizations; 16 more deaths reported

COVID-19 hospitalizations hit another record (538) in Wednesday’s report from the Arkansas Department of Health, with total cases – those confirmed by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and antigen tests – rising to 88,880.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he is hoping the numbers continue to be lower than those posted during the previous week.

“There seems to be a pattern of increased cases toward the latter part of the week as so many go in for testing after a weekend. If the trend holds, cases may go up again toward the end of the week and then decline from there. Regardless, we are hoping to keep the peak this week lower than last week. Everyone do your part,” the governor noted in a statement.

COVID REPORT – Oct. 7
New known COVID-19 cases, active cases, tests
• 84,914 known cumulative cases, with 621 new community cases and 63 cases in correctional facilities
• 3,966 “probable” cases, up from 3,841 on Tuesday
• There are 5,908 active cases, down from 5,970 on Tuesday
• There were 8,935 test results provided in the previous 24 hours.
• There were 1,110 antigen tests in the previous 24 hours with 197 positives.

Deaths
• 1,337, up 16
• 145 “probable” COVID-related deaths, down 3

Hospitalizations
538, up 9

Ventilators
98, down 1

Recovered cases
77,660

The top five counties with new known cases reported Wednesday were: Craighead (60), Pulaski (57), Jefferson (44), Washington (26), and Sebastian (23). The counties accounted for 33.8% of the 621 new community cases.

As of Wednesday at 2:30 p.m., there were 7,525,255 U.S. cases and 211,405 deaths. Globally, there were 35,970,265 cases and 1,052,105 deaths.