COVID-19 deaths set another daily record, active cases rise

The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) on Wednesday (Dec. 16) reported 58 COVID-19 deaths, a new daily record for the tragic metric. The previous record of 55 deaths was set Dec. 11. Also on Wednesday, available ICU beds in the state fell from 73 to 64.

Total cumulative confirmed and probable cases rose by 2,306 to 191,504, and active cases rose by 84 to 20,774. Total confirmed and probable deaths rose by 58 to 3,074. Hospitalizations rose by nine to 1,079. Hospitalizations set a daily record of 1,088 on Dec. 2.

“Yesterday was a new record in antigen testing in Arkansas, and new cases are running flat week over week. Regretfully, we also saw another record in new deaths, with 58 deaths reported yesterday. We are distributing the vaccine across the state for our health care workers, and we continue to see high levels of community spread,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement.

COVID REPORT – Dec. 16
New known COVID-19 cases, active cases, tests
• 163,230 known cumulative PCR cases, with 1,624 new community cases and 14 reported cases in correctional facilities
• 20,784 probable cases, up from 20,690 on Tuesday
• There are 15,862 active cases, down from 16,012 on Tuesday
• There were 8,885 test results provided in the previous 24 hours.
• There were 4,696 antigen tests in the previous 24 hours.

Deaths
• 2,725, up 53
• 349 probable COVID-related deaths, up 5

Hospitalizations
1,079, up 9

Ventilators
184, down 6

Recovered cases
144,621

The top five counties with new known cases reported Wednesday were: Pulaski (242), Washington (159), Benton (153), Craighead (110), and Faulkner (103). The counties accounted for 47.2% of the 1,624 new community cases.

As of Wednesday at 1 p.m., there were 16,769,765 U.S. cases and 305,268 deaths. Globally, there were 73,817,374 cases and 1,642,722 deaths.