An uptick in Arkansas' new coronavirus cases resumed on Monday as the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 topped 200 for the first time in more than three months.
Rising for the second day in a row, the number reported to be hospitalized jumped by 21, to 209, its highest level since March 16.
It was the largest one-day increase in hospitalized patients since Jan. 26, during the state's first wave of infections from the omicron variant.
The state's count of cases rose by 393.
While smaller by 114 compared to the daily increase on Sunday, it was larger by 142 than the rise the previous Monday.
For the second day in a row, however, the state didn't report any new deaths from covid-19.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, remained at 11,568.
Due to slowdowns in testing and reporting on weekends, Arkansas' new case numbers tend to be smaller on Sundays and Mondays than during the rest of the week.
After dipping on Sunday, the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period rose Monday to 837, its highest level since the week ending Feb. 24.
With recoveries outnumbering new infections, however, the number of cases in the state that were considered active fell by 447, to 9,694, after topping 10,000 over the weekend for the first time since February.
After not changing a day earlier, the number of the state's virus patients who were on ventilators rose Monday by three, to 13.
The number who were in intensive care, which fell the previous two days, rose by three, to 35.
