Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases rose Thursday by 279 -- the second daily increase in a row that was the largest since March and the first time since that month that the count grew by more than 200 on two consecutive days.
After falling to a new 25-month low a day earlier, the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 rose by 10, to 50 -- the largest single-day jump since Jan. 31.
Although one new virus death was reported, the state's death toll, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, remained at 11,403 after another death was removed from the total, department spokeswoman Katie White said.
Information on the reason for the death's removal wasn't available Thursday.
The increase in cases Thursday was larger by 53 than the one on Wednesday and by 89 than the one the previous Thursday.
It was the largest daily increase since March 22, a time when the state's new case numbers were inflated by a backlog of reports that had been faxed in by providers weeks earlier, during a surge of infections from the omicron variant.
"I think it's safe to say that we are experiencing a sustained increase in cases since about two weeks ago, and I think that'll continue," State Epidemiologist Mike Cima said.
He said the uptick was most likely due to one or more new versions of omicron that have been blamed for waves of infections elsewhere.
One strain, known as BA.2.12.1, has been spreading rapidly in the United States.
Two others, BA.4 and BA.5, have fueled a spike in cases in South Africa but "haven't really taken hold" in the United States like BA.2.12.1 has, Cima said.
At least in the next few weeks, he said he doesn't expect Arkansas' upward trend to build into a surge similar to the ones caused by the original omicron variant this winter or the delta variant last summer.
"I don't have indications of that happening quite yet," Cima said.
"I think the increases that we have been experiencing, and probably will experience in the coming weeks, will probably be more gradual in nature."
ACTIVE CASES
Rising for the second day in a row, the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period grew to 146, its highest level since the week ending March 29.
With new cases outnumbering recoveries, the number of cases in the state that were considered active rose by 144, to 1,765, the largest total since March 15.
That topped the increase on Wednesday, making it the biggest single-day rise in active cases since January.
After not changing a day earlier, the number of the state's virus patients who were on ventilators fell by one, to 12.
The number who were in intensive care, which also didn't change Wednesday, rose Thursday by three, to 20.
At its hospitals in Little Rock and Springdale, Arkansas Children's had four covid-19 patients Thursday, up from three Wednesday, spokeswoman Hilary DeMillo said.
MAP UPDATED
In contrast to the recent uptick in cases, an update on Thursday to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's map of "covid-19 community levels" resulted in all 75 of the Arkansas' counties being labeled as having a "low" covid-19 level for the first time in more than a month.
Sixty-six of the counties already had been labeled low based on their weekly numbers of new cases and covid-19 hospital admissions and the percentage of hospital beds that were occupied by covid-19 patients.
In Pulaski County and eight others clustered around Central Arkansas, the level fell from "medium" to low as a result of a drop in hospital admissions in their shared service used by the CDC to calculate hospital metrics.
It was the fifth week in a row that no county in the state had a "high" covid-19 level, which triggers a recommendation that people wear masks in indoor public places.
In medium-level counties, the CDC recommends people who are immunocompromised or at high risk of severe covid-19 illness talk to their health care providers about whether they should wear masks or take other precautions.
People in those counties also should consider wearing masks around people who have a high risk of severe illness, according to the CDC.
In counties with low covid-19 levels, the CDC doesn't have a recommendation about whether people should wear masks.
CASES BY COUNTY
Pulaski County had the most new cases, 54, on Thursday, followed by Washington County with 32 and Benton County with 28.
The state's cumulative count of cases since March 2020 rose to 836,622.
The Health Department's tally of vaccine doses that had been administered rose by 1,719, the seventh daily increase in a row that was smaller than the one a day earlier.
Almost half the most recent increase was from doses classified on the Health Department's coronavirus dashboard as not having an "available dose number."
That's how the department is listing second booster doses, which were authorized in March for people who are 50 or older or have compromised immune systems.
The count of doses for people receiving the vaccine for the first time rose by 370, which was down by 60 compared with the increase in first doses a week earlier.
The average number of total doses administered each day over a rolling seven-day period fell to 1,507, its lowest level since the week ending April 2.
The average for first doses fell to 310.
According to the CDC, the percentage of Arkansans who had received at least one dose remained Thursday at 66.7%, and the percentage who were fully vaccinated remained at 54.5%.
The percentage of those fully vaccinated who had received a booster dose remained at 39.7%.
Among the states and District of Columbia, Arkansas continued to rank 37th in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one dose.
In the percentage who were fully vaccinated, it remained roughly tied with Tennessee for 45th, ahead of Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Wyoming and Alabama.
Nationally, 77.7% of people had received at least one dose, and 66.3% were fully vaccinated.
Of the fully vaccinated population nationally, 45.9% had received a booster dose.