Arkansas now has 63 confirmed cases of the highly contagious covid-19 omicron variant, the state's chief medical officer, Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, said Monday.
But they are a fraction of covid cases overall; most of those tested are caused by the delta variant, according to the state Health Department.
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."
The state previously only had two omicron cases confirmed, as of Friday, even though an out-of-state lab in the Memphis area reported numerous tests positive for the variant in northeast Arkansas.
Dillaha said Monday that those cases, as well as others, are included in the 63 confirmed cases of the variant.
Craighead County in northeast Arkansas saw the largest daily increase on Monday, with 180 more new cases added -- more than double the 83 new cases reported there on Dec. 1.
The state's seventh-largest county by population was rarely on the Health Department's daily list of counties with the most new cases until this month.
After Craighead County, Pulaski County had the most new cases Monday with 164, followed by Washington County with 78.
Craighead County, with 1,202 active cases as of Monday, is fast catching up with the more populated Pulaski County, which had 1,332 active cases.
A report released Monday by the Health Department shows that as of Christmas Day, more than 91% of the covid-19 cases in the state are caused by the delta variant while fewer than 0.1% are attributed to omicron.
The Health Department does not test all covid-19 samples for variants, but only from a "very small, non-random, convenience sample of cases," according to the report.
"It is important to understand that this information is not representative of all cases, and does not reflect the overall burden of the disease," Health Secretary Jose Romero said in the report. "It is presumed that there are many more people affected than the report shows."
Dillaha said studies from the United Kingdom and South Africa indicate people who have received only two doses of covid-19 vaccine have less protection from infection with the omicron variant than those who have been fully vaccinated and boosted.
"People who have received two doses plus a booster dose have much greater protection against infection," Dillaha said. "Two doses is still very effective in preventing hospitalizations."
The Health Department is expecting a post-holiday surge of new cases, Dillaha said.
"Past holidays during the pandemic have often resulted in an increase in cases, and we are already seeing an increase in cases leading up to the holidays," she said. "So we will be watching to see how large the increase after Christmas and New Year's will be."
HOSPITALIZATIONS
As hospitalizations tick upward, hospitals in the state are watching cautiously and staying on guard in case of a surge.
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Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock is seeing record numbers of people in its drive-thru covid-19 testing site, spokeswoman Cara Wade said.
"Today we tested 725 people at this location and the previous record was 500," Wade said in an email. "Our positivity rate of 28 percent is also a new record. And, more than 90 percent of our positive tests have markers for omicron."
The hospital system as a whole is also seeing a "slight trend" with increased covid-19 hospitalizations, Wade said.
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On Monday, Baptist Health had 112 covid-19 patients. On Dec. 10, that number was 97 and a few weeks before that, it was 60 inpatients, Wade said.
"During the last surge in the summer, 300 was the highest number of covid-19 patients at Baptist Health," Wade said. "Of the 112 hospitalized at Baptist Health today, 38 of those are in an intensive care unit and 26 are on a ventilator (our high was 103). In addition, our emergency room volume has increased in the last few days."
The covid-19 case load has remained steady for CHI St. Vincent, Bonnie Ward, CHI St. Vincent director of marketing and communications, said in an email. Ward did not release specific capacity numbers.
"But our healing ministry has seen increases in the number of patients seeking COVID-19 tests, positive test results and demand for monoclonal antibody therapy," Ward said. "CHI St. Vincent is closely monitoring developments related to new COVID-19 variants and the possibility of an additional surge in cases. Our ministry is coordinating with the Arkansas Department of Health and federal agencies in order to remain prepared and has existing surge plans in place to ensure we can continue to meet the critical care needs of those we serve."
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According to the Health Department on Monday, 188 covid-19 patients were in intensive care units, a dip of five from Sunday.
The number of patients on ventilators dropped by 11 to 107 statewide, the department reported.
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BY THE NUMBERS
Another 981 new cases were added Monday -- 547 more cases than reported the previous Monday. Since the pandemic hit the state in March, there have been a cumulative total of 551,394 cases.
Deaths from the virus rose by 15 to 9,081.
VACCINATIONS
The number of vaccine doses that providers reported having administered rose by 1,248 to 3,666,997.
The number of individuals fully immunized increased by 351, to a total of 1,498,793, or 52.7%, of Arkansans 5 years old and up. The number of Arkansans partially immunized against the virus increased by 100, to 349,391, or 12.3%, of the population 5 years old and up.
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As of Monday, 418,771 third vaccine doses had been administered.
TEST RESULTS
There were 2,868 newly reported covid-19 tests, comprising 2,248 PCR and 620 antigen tests.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 5,719,249 tests have been reported. Of that number, 575,256 were positive for covid-19, according to Health Department data.