Arkansas now has 63 confirmed cases of the highly contagious covid-19 omicron variant, state chief medical officer Dr. Jennifer Dillaha said Monday.
The news comes as covid-19 hospitalizations increased by 37 to 519 Monday — a daily uptick not seen since Sept. 1 — and the number of cases in the state that were considered active rose to 10,090, the largest number since Sept. 30.
"We continue to monitor increasing hospitalizations across the state," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on social media Monday afternoon. "Over 87% of covid hospitalizations are unvaccinated, which shows the effectiveness of the vaccine at preventing serious illness. Get your vaccine this week as cases and hospitalizations continue to increase."
Another 981 new cases were added Monday — 547 more cases than reported the previous Monday. Since the pandemic hit the state in March 2020, there have been a cumulative total of 551,394 cases.
Deaths from the virus rose by 15 to 9,081.
Read Tuesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story included incorrect information about the number of covid-19 hospitalizations.