The number of people hospitalized with covid-19 in Arkansas jumped back above 100 on Monday, reaching its highest level since March, as the state's new cases continued to trend upward.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, rose by seven, to 11,505.
The number hospitalized rose by 20, to 116, the highest total since March 30.
It was the biggest one-day increase in hospitalized covid-19 patients since Jan. 26, during a surge of infections from the omicron variant.
"I think that goes along with the fact that we're having this increase in the active cases, which is indicative of the increases in cases in general in the state," Health Department Director Dr. Jennifer Dillaha said.
"We have a lot more people becoming infected again, and a certain number of those people will end up in the hospital, so as the active cases go up, then it's natural for the hospitalizations to go up."
Noting the emergence of more-infectious versions of omicron, such as the subvariants known as BA.4 and BA.5, she said she expects the state's upward trend in new cases to continue "throughout the summer at least."
"We have a large proportion of people in Arkansas who are not vaccinated, and the variants that are circulating, particularly the ones that are increasing, the BA.4 and BA.5, are very infectious, and they'll find the people who don't have protective immunity," Dillaha said.
She said four of the deaths reported Monday occurred within the past month. Of the others, one was from February, one was from March and one was from early May.
The state's total case count rose by 173. While smaller by 126 than the rise on Sunday, it was larger by 55 than the increase a week earlier, on Memorial Day.
Already at its highest level since the week ending March 25, the average daily increase in cases over a rolling seven-day period rose to 419.
After rising to almost 5,000 on Sunday for the first time since February, the number of cases in the state that were considered active fell Monday by 211, to 4,728, as recoveries outnumbered new infections.
Dropping for the third day in a row, the number of the state's virus patients who were on ventilators fell by one, to three.
The number who were in intensive care, which fell by three on Sunday, fell by three more on Monday, to 17.
St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro had 11 covid-19 patients on Monday, the first time the number had been above 10 in weeks, spokesman Mitchell Nail said.
He said the number had been hovering around 3 to 5 before it started creeping up just over a week ago.
"The good part is we only have one in the ICU, so we're not seeing as severe of cases," he said.
During the winter omicron surge, the total number of covid-19 patients at the hospital reached an all-time high of 128 on Jan. 27.
"As a hospital with a typical capacity of 440, 11 is definitely manageable, but any time you see the trend go up, it just makes you concerned because of what you've seen in the past," Nail said.
"You're just kind of hoping that influx does not become rapid."
CHILDREN'S VACCINES
Also on Monday, Dillaha said Arkansas is set to receive an initial allocation of 35,800 doses of covid-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months old if the shots are authorized for that age group next week.
Half of the doses would be the Pfizer vaccine for children from 6 months to 4 years of age and the other half would be the Moderna vaccine for children ages 6 months to 5 years.
Both vaccines are low-dose versions of the companies' shots that are available to adults.
On June 15, an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will discuss authorizing the shots for the new age groups.
If the federal officials sign off, Arkansas could receive its first doses as soon as June 20, Dillaha said.
She said most will likely to go Health Department local health units, pediatricians, family medicine clinics and other providers that participate in a federal program that distributes free vaccines for children.
"That's where families are accustomed to getting their vaccines for their young children," Dillaha said.
"Most of them have a relationship where they can get the information they need and make an informed decision about vaccinating their children."
Currently the Pfizer vaccine is available to ages 5 and up, and Moderna's is allowed for people 18 and older. No covid-19 vaccine has yet been authorized for children under 5.
According to the CDC, 23.7% of Arkansas children age 5-11 had received at least one vaccine dose as of Monday, and 17.2% were fully vaccinated.
As of Saturday, just 791 children in that age group had received booster doses, which were authorized just over two weeks ago for children who received their initial two-dose series at least five months earlier.
"I would like to see the uptake increase," Dillaha said of covid-19 vaccines for children generally.
"Hopefully it will toward the end of summer as parents get their kids ready for school because the kind of immunity provided by vaccines when kids receive the recommended doses will go a long way toward decreasing the spread of covid in schools."
While children are less likely than adults to develop severe illness from covid-19, Dillaha noted they can develop long-term symptoms as well as a rare condition involving inflammation of organs such as the heart and lungs.
"I am concerned about long covid in children and the fact that so many of the children who end up in the hospital don't have risk factors," Dillaha said.
"It's really hard to predict which of the children will have severe illness, and it's hard to know which will have the multi-inflammatory syndrome in children as a result, and that can be very severe."
CASES BY COUNTY
Pulaski County had the most new cases, 38, on Monday, followed by Crittenden County with 15 and Faulkner County with 14.
The state's cumulative count of cases since March 2020 rose to 846,119.
The Health Department's tally of vaccine doses that had been administered to people of all ages rose by 155, which was up by 29 from the daily increase a week earlier.
About 63% of the most recent increase was from people receiving their first booster shots.
The count of people starting the vaccination process rose by 21 -- the smallest daily increase since the Health Department started regularly releasing vaccination data in January 2021.
According to the CDC, 67.1% of Arkansans of all ages had received at least one dose as of Monday, and 54.8% were fully vaccinated.
Of those who were fully vaccinated, 40.3% had received a booster dose.
Among the states and the District of Columbia, Arkansas ranked 37th in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one dose.
In the percentage who were fully vaccinated, the Natural State was roughly tied with Tennessee for 46th, ahead of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Wyoming.
Nationally, 77.9% of people had received at least one dose, and 66.7% were fully vaccinated.
Of the fully vaccinated population nationally, 46.9% had received a booster dose.