The number of new coronavirus cases reported to the Arkansas Department of Health increased by 302 on Tuesday, and an additional 24 Arkansans were hospitalized because of covid-19.
State Epidemiologist Mike Cima said the increase in cases was relatively low, which is to be expected after holidays such as the Fourth of July when less testing and reporting is being done.
Last week, the number of reported covid-19 cases increased by more than 1,200 for five days in a row -- with increases of over 1,400 on three of those days, according to the Department of Health.
"By Thursday or Friday, I would expect the upward trend to continue," Cima said.
He said there's been an increase in coronavirus cases because of omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, both of which originated in South Africa a couple of months ago.
"BA.5 is most of what is showing up in Arkansas now," said Cima.
He said it appears to be slightly more transmissible than the variant that came before it.
Also, some data indicates BA.5 has a proclivity to reinfect people, said Cima.
Arkansas had 11,283 active cases of coronavirus as of Tuesday. That's way down from the peak of 102,576 on Jan. 22, during a surge of infections caused by the omicron variant. But it's an increase from April, when the number of active cases hovered around 1,000.
The increase of 24 hospitalizations brought the total to 273. That's up from a low of 40 on May 4 and the highest hospitalization total since March 10.
Cima said the reported number of hospitalizations tends to be highest early in the week, then stabilizes later in the week. Last week, the number of Arkansans hospitalized with covid-19 jumped by 30 on Wednesday, then had much smaller increases of one, three and one over the next three days before decreasing by one on Sunday. Cima said he doesn't know why that pattern has emerged.
Hospital patients on ventilators decreased by one on Tuesday to a total of 11.
"Those numbers still remain very, very low," Cima said.
He said there were no new deaths reported Tuesday. A total of 11,589 Arkansans have died from covid-19, according to the Department of Health. Seventy-four percent of those who died were age 65 and over.
"There is a lot of immunity out there right now," said Cima. "And we have therapeutics that are pretty darn good."
The omicron variant has been dominant since late December. As transmission continues, in Arkansas and across the nation, this virus mutates, said Cima. New variations of omicron have new characteristics.
"The omicron variant spreads more easily than earlier variants of the virus that cause covid-19, including the delta variant," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "CDC expects that anyone with Omicron infection, regardless of vaccination status or whether or not they have symptoms, can spread the virus to others."
People traveling for the long Fourth of July weekend could cause a spike in coronavirus numbers, but that won't be seen for a few days, according to health officials.
Cima said the state is already in the midst of an increase in activity, and Fourth of July travel will just add to that.
Arkansas' total number of coronavirus cases since March 2020 was 869,072 on Tuesday, up from 868,770 on Monday.
Recovered cases totaled 845,970, up from 844,965.
A total of 7,102,302 coronavirus tests have been administered. Of that number 11.5% of the PCR tests were positive and 15.5% of the antigen tests were positive, according to the Department of Health.
Local and national health officials have cautioned that recent covid-19 case numbers are under-reported because many people now test themselves at home and don't report their results.