By Mary Hennigan
Arkansascovid.com
Arkansas health officials reported 289 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday, a large one-day total that represented a data records update that brought the total statewide pandemic death count to 8,120.
Most of these deaths, 280, were part of a one-time data update from the Arkansas Department of Health. This number represents Arkansans who died in out-of-state instances from the beginning of the pandemic, spokesperson Meg Mirivel said.
The daily death count for Oct. 10 was nine, Mirivel said. That one-day total was slightly less than the seven-day-average death count of 15 cases. The recent monthly death counts from August and September skyrocketed and reached nearly 800 due to the deadlier Delta variant.
As COVID-19 cases decreased to represent the end of another wave of the pandemic, daily death counts have also slowly begun to follow that pattern.
In September, an average of 25 Arkansans died every day. Twelve days had more than 30 deaths and the lowest reported count was 11. Counts in October have already shown a decrease. With the Sunday daily count at nine, the first 10 days of the month have averaged 15 deaths per day. The one-day reports are lower and three days have had less than 10 reported deaths, whereas September had zero.
