Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases since the pandemic hit the state in March passed the 200,000 mark Saturday after 2,693 new cases were added, taking the total to 200,114.
The milestone was reached as the state also hit its highest number of active cases at 23,066 -- an increase of 674 cases over Friday's record 22,392.
"What concerns me the most is that high numbers mean more people in the hospital and more deaths," state Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said.
The state death toll from the virus rose by 52 to 3,191, according to Department of Health data.
The number of patients hospitalized with the virus in the state fell by 12 to 1,061, while the number of covid-19 patients in intensive care units fell by 23 to 345.
Those patients included 177 on ventilators, down four from 181 the previous day.
Of the new cases added, 1,853 were confirmed through polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests and 840 through antigen tests.
The state reported 11,971 PCR tests and 3,205 antigen tests Saturday -- slightly lower than the 13,189 PCR tests and 2,750 antigen tests reported the previous Saturday.
In the past seven days, 15,862 Arkansans contracted the virus and 280 died from it.
Records were posted last week: the daily number of new cases hit 3,039 Thursday; the daily number of deaths hit 58 Wednesday; and the number of active cases hit a record Friday at 22,392 and again Saturday at 23,066.
Dillaha said she's worried that the spread only will increase because of holiday activities such as shopping and gatherings.
VACCINATIONS
The covid-19 vaccine continues to be administered to front-line health care workers around the state.
On Monday, the state received 25,350 doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and expects to get another 18,525 doses this week.
The additional doses will go to some of the same larger hospitals that received direct shipments last week, as well as to ambulance workers and employees in high-risk jobs at rehabilitation hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals and surgical hospitals, Dillaha said previously.
About 51,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, approved Friday by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, also is expected this week and will be administered to people in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
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"We are hearing good reports," Dillaha said of the week's vaccine distribution. "A few bumps in the road, but people have smoothed the bumps and pulled together. I'm really proud of the health care providers in Arkansas who worked together to make this happen."
She said Blue Cross and Blue Shield "stepped up," and made arrangements to print and deliver 26,000 copies of the fact sheet for the vaccine to hospitals and other sites throughout the state.
"It went off without a hitch," she said.
A handful of states have reported some adverse reactions to the vaccine, Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, announced late Friday.
Dillaha said there have been a "few adverse reactions" in Arkansas, and she encouraged everyone to report them.
"So far, we have not heard of any life-threatening adverse events," she said.
Dillaha said officials are still reviewing data about the new strain of covid-19 identified last week in the United Kingdom that can spread more quickly than the current virus.
"We're waiting to learn more information about that mutation and whether it affects the part of the spike protein that the vaccines protect against," she said.
COUNTY LEVELS
The counties with the largest number of new cases Saturday were Pulaski with 281, Benton with 279, Washington with 202, Craighead with 115 and Pope with 105.
The counties with the highest number of active cases as of Saturday evening were Pulaski with 2,723, Washington with 1,963, Benton with 1,634, Craighead with 1,046 and Faulkner with 937.
Barry Hyde, county judge of Pulaski County, said Saturday that he remembers in June when there were only 30 or 40 new cases a day.
"We were just alarmed at how many numbers that was, but now I think our 14-day rolling average is around 264," Hyde said. "People like me, who have not contracted the disease, worry more today than we did six months ago because now the odds are certainly getting worse and worse in favor of us getting it."
Pulaski County set a one-day high Friday with 355 new cases.
"People have covid fatigue. It's hard for folks to stay disciplined and motivated to wear the masks, wash your hands and social distance," Hyde said. "My wife [Jeanne] and I haven't hugged a grandkid in nine months. Thanksgiving dinner was only my wife and I. Christmas dinner looks like it will be the same."
Hyde said the shadow of the pandemic hangs heavy over everyone.
"We're Americans and, in America, if there's a problem, we fix it and we go on. And this has just gone on for so long. I think that's the problem," he said. "We've been so fortunate in county government to keep our employees motivated and disciplined to follow the rules that we have in place. Knock on wood, we have not had a spread among our county employees."
Hyde praised the county's Office of Emergency Management and state officials for how they've met the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.
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"It's evolving," he said. "I'm hopeful we will never see another one of these in my lifetime, but if we do, I think we certainly have people in these positions who will be even more experienced in the future."
Hyde said about one-quarter of the county employees continue to work from home. In evaluating the productivity of employees working from home, it quickly became apparent that "most of those folks are producing more work" than when they were in the office.
"We thought in the beginning that this would only be a two-week thing, but then it was two weeks, then two weeks, then two weeks," he said. "We got better at it very quickly. The increased productivity was a little bit surprising, but that's something we're going to use to our benefit in the future."
Hyde said that only about "three or four" employees have tested positive out of the more than 250 members of the county workforce.
"The positive cases were not in the same place," Hyde said. "In other words, it does not appear they got it at the county. They brought it in, but luckily, with our protocol, we avoided spreading it to anybody else."
Hyde said he understands how tired everyone is of the pandemic and its limitations.
"We're coming down the homestretch, and it's so important that we just wear our masks, wash our hands and socially distance," he said. "It's just going to be another couple of months. We've got to take care of each other and take care of us."