LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On Sunday, August 8, Arkansas reported the newest case numbers and reported over 1,300 new COVID cases and 1,273 total hospitalizations.
The state also surpassed 400,000 total COVID cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
Key facts to know:
- New cases: 404,277 (+1,369)
- Total deaths: 6,301 (+11)
- Currently hospitalized: 1,273 (+33)
- Fully immunized: 1,095,166 (+2,410)
Head health officials answered Arkansas lawmakers' questions at a Health, Welfare, and Labor Committee meeting on Monday, August 2, and laid out statistics that the state hasn't seen since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to the Arkansas Hospital Association, a group that covers 111 hospitals in the state, only about 3% of ICU beds in Arkansas are available— out of the total number of 1,137 ICU beds in hospitals within the group's network, only 37 beds are available.
The daily rise of people in the hospital for COVID also hit an all-time record Monday at an increase of 81 Arkansans checking themselves in for the virus.
The AHA said that among virus patients, 85% are unvaccinated.
Col. Rob Ator, the head of vaccine distribution for the state, confirmed that 80,000 doses of the vaccine were set to expire this weekend, but most of them were used and only about 5,000 ended up expiring.
Another startling statistic announced Monday: Arkansas has surpassed the original peak of people on ventilators with COVID-19.
On Friday, a judge temporarily blocked the state's mask mandate ban. Gov. Hutchinson voiced his support for the block after the legislature adjourned without amending the law to allow schools to enact mask mandates.
We will update this article with more information as it becomes available.