Active COVID-19 cases decline, but hospitalizations and death continue to rise

Reducing the number of COVID-19 patients in Arkansas hospitals depends on how Arkansans follow health safety protocols during the Thanksgiving holiday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday (Nov. 23) in conjunction with the Arkansas Department of Health daily COVID report.

The report showed that hospitalizations rose by 12 to 974, and COVID patients on ventilators rose by one to 164. The number of active cases fell to 13,252, down from the 13,714 on Sunday.

Total known confirmed and probable cumulative COVID cases reached 146,190, up 1,017. Total confirmed and probable deaths rose by 30 to 2,387.

“We saw a decrease in new cases from last Monday, and this is a hopeful sign; but our hospitalizations are still going up. How we handle Thanksgiving this year will determine our hospitalizations around Christmas. Thanks for being a part of turning this fight around,” Gov. Hutchinson said.

COVID REPORT – Nov. 23
New known COVID-19 cases, active cases, tests
• 129,405 known cumulative PCR cases, with 907 new community cases and 5 cases in correctional facilities
• 16,785 probable cases, up from 16,680 on Sunday
• There are 13,252 active cases, up from 13,714 on Sunday
• There were 10,693 test results provided in the previous 24 hours.
• There were 890 antigen tests in the previous 24 hours.

Deaths
• 2,191, up 30
• 196 probable COVID-related deaths, unchanged

Hospitalizations
974, up 12

Ventilators
164, up 1

Recovered cases
113,946

The top five counties with new known cases reported Monday were: Pulaski (157), Washington (75), Benton (69), Sebastian (57), and Saline (54). The counties accounted for 45.4% of the 907 new community cases.

As of Monday at 2 p.m., there were 12,314,229 U.S. cases and 257,095 deaths. Globally, there were 58,967,830 cases and 1,393,543 deaths.