Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases rose by 966 from Saturday through Monday, with the number of people hospitalized in the state with the virus rising above 300 for the first time since March, according to information released by the state Department of Health on Monday.
The cases added to the state's tallies included 392 that were added Saturday, 298 added on Sunday and 276 on Monday.
Each increase was significantly larger than the one a week earlier.
Altogether, the increase over three days was larger by almost 500.
After rising by 21, to 312, as of Saturday, then to 325 as of Sunday, the number of covid-19 patients in Arkansas hospitals fell to 314 as of Monday, according to the Health Department.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the department, rose by four, to 5,897, over the three-day span.
"While we saw rising hospitalizations and active cases over the weekend, we also saw one of the better weekends for vaccinations in a number of weeks," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a tweet.
"The increasing case numbers and hospitalizations can decline but only by more Arkansans getting the covid vaccine."
Monday was the first time the Health Department had publicly released coronavirus data since Friday.
Including second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the number of vaccine doses providers reported having administered since then rose by 13,826.
That was larger by more than 2,400 than the increase over the same three days a week earlier.
The number of virus patients who were on ventilators fell from 67 as of Friday to 66 on Saturday, 65 on Sunday and 63 on Monday.
After reaching a three-month high of 3,199 as of Sunday, the number of cases that were considered active fell Monday by 30 as recoveries outpaced new cases.
The increase in total cases continued a recent upward trend that included a spike of 485 cases on Tuesday, which was the largest single-day increase in more than three months.
The average daily increase over a rolling seven-day period rose as of Monday to 361, the highest level since the week ending March 6.
Despite the uptick, state officials announced Friday that the state would stop releasing updates on cases, deaths, hospitalizations and other indicators on Saturdays and Sundays for the first time since the state's first case was diagnosed in March 2020.
State Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said Friday the reason for the change was that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was no longer requiring the state to submit data to it over the weekend, and the department wanted to "give the epidemiologists a break."