For the 13th day in a row, Arkansas has set a record for the number of active cases of covid-19.
The Arkansas Department of Health reported on Sunday that there are 96,379 active cases of covid-19 in the state. That's an increase of 2,113 from Saturday.
On Christmas Day, the total number of active covid-19 cases in the state was 10,033. Holiday gatherings and the highly contagious omicron variant have been cited as reasons for the increase in cases.
The Health Department also reported an additional 28 people hospitalized with covid-19, bringing the total currently hospitalized with the virus in Arkansas to 1,385.
The Health Department reported 5,386 new cases of covid-19 on Sunday.
That number is down considerably from the pandemic peak of 12,990 new cases on Thursday, but it's high for a Sunday, when fewer cases are normally reported.
On the previous Sunday, Jan. 9, 4,308 new cases were reported. The Sunday before that (Jan. 2), the total was 2,181.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson touted the testing numbers in a tweet on Sunday. They included an additional 13,308 polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) tests and 856 antigen tests that were given Saturday.
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"Testing remained high Saturday with much lower cases reported," he wrote on Twitter. "This is a hopeful sign we are close to a peak. The best way we can come back down is to get vaccinated and boosted."
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After reaching 12,990 new cases on Thursday, the number of new cases dropped to 10,405 on Friday, then increased to 11,596 on Saturday.
Many Arkansans are using rapid at-home test kits, and the results of those tests might not be reflected in the Health Department's report.
The number of Arkansas hospital patients on ventilators with covid increased by three to 168.
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Four more Arkansans have died from the virus, bringing total deaths to 9,434, according to the Health Department.
Counties reporting the most new cases were Pulaski with 669, Washington with 531 and Benton with 448.
The number of people in Arkansas who are fully immunized against the virus increased by 444 to 1,528,168, according to Sunday's report.
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The number partially immunized increased by 810 to 370,237.
Arkansas' population is just over 3 million.
With the number of cases increasing nationwide, on Tuesday, Janet Woodcock, the acting head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said most people will get covid-19.
Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said that doesn't mean most people will get covid-19 this month.
"I think the reality is most people are going to get covid in their lifetime," he said Sunday on the CBS television show "Face the Nation."
Gottlieb said people should continue to get vaccinations and make efforts to protect themselves from the virus.
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"If they can keep themselves protected for the next several weeks, we will probably be through this omicron wave," he said. "And then we'll have to deal with this probably next fall when we have better tools available to us."
Besides vaccinations, those tools may include widely available oral drugs and monoclonal antibodies to treat the virus, as well as diagnostic testing, he said.
"I think we should remain vigilant for the next several weeks," said Gottlieb. "Try to avoid this infection if you can."
"Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-produced molecules that act as substitute antibodies that can restore, enhance or mimic the immune system's attack on cells," according to the Food and Drug Administration. "Monoclonal antibodies for covid-19 may block the virus that causes covid-19 from attaching to human cells, making it more difficult for the virus to reproduce and cause harm. Monoclonal antibodies may also neutralize a virus."
Meg Mirivel, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Health, said many of the department's local health units will be open today to give out free at-home covid tests.
"Because it is a holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, other services will not be offered," she said in an email.
Arkansas has received nearly 1.4 million rapid, at-home test kits, with 393,120 of them arriving on Friday, said Mirivel.
Arkansas has now received all but about 100,000 of the tests that the state purchased in December with $10 million in grant money from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When the health units run out of tests today, they will close for the remainder of the day, said Mirivel.
Public libraries and pharmacies have also been distributing test kits.
As of Saturday, private insurance covers the purchase of at-home test kits nationwide.