Another Carroll County resident has died in the past week from complications related to COVID-19.
The additional death — included in the July 22 report from the Arkansas Department of Health — raised the local death toll to 106 since the pandemic began. Statewide, the death toll attributed to the novel coronavirus increased by 36 during the seven-day period ending July 22, rising to 11,660.
The additional deaths come as the number of active cases of COVID-19 in Carroll County and across the state continue to climb.
On July 8, the ADH reported 112 active cases of COVID-19 in Carroll County, the first time in months the number of active cases had topped 100. On July 22, the state health department reported 139 active cases in the county with an increase of 76 new cases, a modest increase over the 135 reported on July 15, which included an increase of 72 new cases in seven days. Statewide, the number of active cases reported July 15 was 16,833 — up from the previous week’s reported total of 15,856 — and an increase of 9,138 in the overall case count, an increase of 59,341 new cases since April 4.
The overall case count in Carroll County increased to 6,549 since the pandemic began, along with 6,303 “recoveries,” meaning they are no longer being monitored by the health department. Statewide, the number of confirmed cases now stands at 892,469 with 863,826 recoveries.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rated Carroll County’s community transmission level in its weekly report as “medium,” with a case rate of 274.84 per 100,000, with new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 at 7.4 and 4.3 percent of staffed, inpatient beds in use by patients with confirmed COVID-19.
On July 22, the state health department reported 414 COVID-positive hospital admissions, with 63 in intensive care. Of those, 16 required the aid of a ventilator.
On July 15, the number of hospitalizations was 376, with 64 in intensive care and 18 on a ventilator.
Since the pandemic began, hospitalizations in Arkansas have included 1,462 children under the age of 18 — an increase of seven in seven days — including 175 who had been in intensive care.
On July 15, the state health department reported 2,538 active cases among children — up from the 2,216 reported July 1 — more than 15 percent of the statewide total.
The age group with the most active cases was 65-and-older with 3,379, followed by those 25-34 with 2,629 and those 35-44 with 2,278, all of which are up since July 15. The 45-54 age group is close behind with 2,215 reported active cases.
Since Jan. 1, the number of overall cases of the novel coronavirus in the state has increased by 327,927, with the majority of those occurring among unvaccinated individuals. The number of active cases in Arkansas this year peaked on Jan. 21, when 102,576 were reported.
On the vaccination front, the state health department reported July 22 the number of Arkansans aged 5 and older who are fully vaccinated had increased to 1,647,461 — a total of 139,423 since Jan. 1 — with another 287,234 listed as partially vaccinated and 787,177 listed as having received a third-dose booster.
Combined, those numbers represent approximately 68 percent of Arkansans aged 5 and older.
In Carroll County, 29,783 doses of the various vaccines had been administered by Jan. 1. As of July 22, that number had increased to a reported 35,606 doses.
According to the state health department, 53.9 percent of Carroll County residents aged 5 and older have been fully immunized and another 7.3 percent are partially immunized.
Combined, those numbers represent approximately 61.2 percent of the county’s population that is eligible to receive a vaccine.
