LITTLE ROCK -- The number of COVID-19 cases requiring hospitalization fell to its lowest number since the summer on Wednesday as the state reported 317 new cases.
The Department of Health said COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state dropped by 16 to 301. It's the lowest number of such hospitalizations the state has reported since 285 were in the hospital on July 3.
The state's total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began rose to 325,700. The state's active cases, which don't include people who have died or recovered, dropped by 234 to 3,227.
Arkansas' COVID-19 deaths rose by 25 to 5,382, but Gov. Asa Hutchinson said 16 of the deaths occurred in January and were reported late.
The department said nearly 772,000 of the roughly 1.3 million coronavirus vaccine doses allocated to the state had been given so far.
Hutchinson on Monday expanded the vaccine's eligibility to another 180,000 people, making it available to a wide group that includes essential government employees and manufacturing workers.