As a service to our readers, The Sentinel-Record publishes updates released by the city of Hot Springs and the state of Arkansas.
The following stats were posted Friday on the Arkansas Department of Health's website:
• 268,077 cumulative confirmed cases, up 202 from Thursday.
• 3,079,258 PCR test reports, up 2,480 from Thursday.
• 8.7% cumulative PCR infection rate, no change from Thursday.
• 75,532 cumulative probable cases, up 191 from Thursday.
• 14.4% cumulative antigen infection rate, no change from Thursday.
• 335,703 recoveries of confirmed and probable cases, up 174 from Thursday.
• 1,985 active confirmed and probable cases, up 216 from Thursday.
• 2,663,300 vaccine doses received, no change from Thursday.
• 2,039,979 doses given, up 6,653 from Thursday.
• 202 hospitalizations, down six from Thursday.
• 42 cases on a ventilator, up three from Thursday.
• 95 ICU admissions, up four from Thursday.
• 4,649 confirmed deaths, up eight from Thursday.
• 1,210 probable deaths, up one from Thursday.
• 2,093 nursing home deaths, no change from Thursday.
• 8,715 cumulative confirmed cases in Garland County, up 13 from Thursday.
• 119,420 PCR and antigen test reports, up 112 from Thursday.
• 90,903 private lab reports, up 105 from Thursday.
• 28,163 public lab reports, up seven from Thursday.
• 8.7% cumulative PCR infection rate, no change from Thursday.
• 33 active confirmed cases in Garland County, up six from Thursday.
• 8,467 recoveries of confirmed cases, up seven from Thursday.
• 1,676 cumulative probable cases in Garland County, up three from Thursday.
• 20 active probable cases in Garland County, up two from Thursday.
• 214 confirmed deaths, no change from Thursday.
• 49 probable deaths, no change from Thursday.
U.S. regulators are allowing the release of about 10 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine from a troubled Baltimore factory, but many more doses can't be used and must be thrown out, The Associated Press reported Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it had determined that two batches could be released from the plant, which is owned by Emergent BioSolutions and has been shuttered for eight weeks. But it said several other batches are not suitable for use and additional batches are still under review, the AP reported.
The agency wouldn't specify the size of those batches or why they can't be used, but a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press that they could have yielded tens of millions of doses and that they possibly were contaminated.
Another person familiar with the situation said the doses to be discarded were made about the same time as a vaccine batch equal to about 15 million doses that was contaminated earlier this year and thrown out.