diff --git a/src/backend/replication/logical/worker.c b/src/backend/replication/logical/worker.c
index 73b3837db6..fde4a25471 100644
--- a/src/backend/replication/logical/worker.c
+++ b/src/backend/replication/logical/worker.c
@@ -1491,6 +1491,7 @@ static void
 LogicalRepApplyLoop(XLogRecPtr last_received)
 {
 	TimestampTz last_recv_timestamp = GetCurrentTimestamp();
+	bool		ping_sent = false;
 
 	/*
 	 * Init the ApplyMessageContext which we clean up after each replication
@@ -1503,6 +1504,7 @@ LogicalRepApplyLoop(XLogRecPtr last_received)
 	/* mark as idle, before starting to loop */
 	pgstat_report_activity(STATE_IDLE, NULL);
 
+	/* This outer loop iterates once per wait. */
 	for (;;)
 	{
 		pgsocket	fd = PGINVALID_SOCKET;
@@ -1510,7 +1512,6 @@ LogicalRepApplyLoop(XLogRecPtr last_received)
 		int			len;
 		char	   *buf = NULL;
 		bool		endofstream = false;
-		bool		ping_sent = false;
 		long		wait_time;
 
 		CHECK_FOR_INTERRUPTS();
@@ -1521,7 +1522,7 @@ LogicalRepApplyLoop(XLogRecPtr last_received)
 
 		if (len != 0)
 		{
-			/* Process the data */
+			/* Loop to process all available data (without blocking). */
 			for (;;)
 			{
 				CHECK_FOR_INTERRUPTS();
@@ -1690,10 +1691,7 @@ LogicalRepApplyLoop(XLogRecPtr last_received)
 					ereport(ERROR,
 							(errmsg("terminating logical replication worker due to timeout")));
 
-				/*
-				 * We didn't receive anything new, for half of receiver
-				 * replication timeout. Ping the server.
-				 */
+				/* Check to see if it's time for a ping. */
 				if (!ping_sent)
 				{
 					timeout = TimestampTzPlusMilliseconds(last_recv_timestamp,