The downward trend in Arkansas’ new case numbers continued on Wednesday as the state’s count rose by just 97.

It was the third-smallest increase this year and the smallest that wasn’t on a Sunday or Monday, when the numbers tend to go down because of slowdowns in testing and reporting over the weekend.

By contrast, during the surge of infections from the omicron variant, the state added more than 10,000 cases a day on several days in January.

In a reflection of the drop in the state’s hospitalized covid-19 patients since January, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Chancellor Cam Patterson tweeted Wednesday evening that UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock “officially has 0 patients in hospital for active COVID.”

See the full article from Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette here.