Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases rose Tuesday by 287, the largest daily increase in almost two months, while the number of people hospitalized in the state with the virus rose to its highest level in a week.
For the third day in the past week, however, and the fifth day so far this month, the state didn't report an increase in covid-19 deaths.
The death toll, as tracked by the Department of Health, remained at 11,418.
The increase in cases on Tuesday was almost four times the size of the rise a day earlier and larger by 28 than the one the previous Tuesday.
It was the biggest daily increase since March 22, a time when the state's new case numbers were inflated by a backlog of reports faxed in by providers weeks earlier, during a surge of infections from the omicron variant.
Growing for the fifth day in a row, the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period rose to 214, its highest level since the week ending March 27.
With new cases outnumbering recoveries, the number of cases in the state that were considered active rose by 34, to 2,527.
While larger by 471 than the total a week earlier, it was still down from the recent high of 2,586 that the number reached on Sunday.
Rising for the second straight day, the number of the covid-19 patients in the state's hospitals grew by four, to 56.
Already at its lowest level since March 25, 2020, the number of the state's covid-19 patients who were on ventilators fell by two, to six.
The number who were in intensive care, however, jumped by nine, to 28, the largest number since April 11.