Arkansas recorded 21 additional deaths from covid-19 Wednesday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said, one shy of the daily record of 22.
The additional deaths bring the toll to 732. The state also recorded 649 additional cases of covid-19, bringing the cumulative total of confirmed cases so far to 58,023.
Hutchinson said the number of hospitalized patients decreased by seven from Tuesday to 435.
The number of active cases was 5,390, state epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said, including 258 cases in nursing homes, 727 in correctional facilities and 4,405 in the general population.
Hutchinson said both the Cummins Unit and Ouachita River Unit state prisons are now covid-free. Both suffered large outbreaks earlier in the pandemic and dozens of inmates died.
Hutchinson said 4,378 test results were recorded for the past 24 hours, a slight uptick over Tuesday but well below most days in June and July.
However, even as testing has slowed, the positivity rate of tests for the last 10 days has remained below 10%, the threshold recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So far this month, Arkansas has performed 148,620 tests, Dillaha said. The goal for August is 190,000.
