Departing from a recent downward trend, Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases rose Wednesday by 1,027, the first daily increase in nine days that was larger than the one a week earlier.
After rising the previous six days, however, the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 fell by one, to 517.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the state Department of Health, rose by 21, to 8,901.
In a tweet, Gov. Asa Hutchinson referred to the state's active case total, which rose by 155, to 7,478, as new cases outpaced recoveries and deaths.
"Active cases increased, but they are slightly lower than last week," Hutchinson said.
"Our hospitalizations continue to remain at some of the highest levels since October. 87% of COVID hospitalizations are unvaccinated. The best protection we have is the vaccine."
Larger by 167 than the one the previous Wednesday, the increase in cases was the first daily rise since Friday that topped 1,000.
After falling the previous eight days, the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period rose to 723.
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That was still down from an average of 812 a day a week earlier and a recent high of 838 a day the week ending Dec. 6.
"I was concerned to see over 1,000 new cases today and the 21 deaths," said Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the Health Department's chief medical officer.
"We did not have an increase in our hospitalizations, but they're still pretty high."
Falling for the third day in a row, the number of the state's covid-19 patients who were on ventilators dropped by three, to 99.
After falling the previous two days, the number who were in intensive care remained at 200.
The number of intensive care unit beds in the state's hospitals that were unoccupied fell by 12, to 48, as a result of an increase in non-covid-19 patients who were in intensive care.
People with covid-19 made up about 18% of all the state's intensive care unit patients Wednesday, down slightly from almost 19% a day earlier.
INSTRUCTIONAL SHIFTS
Virus concerns prompted two more school districts to announce shifts to virtual instruction Wednesday.
The Little Rock School District said Cloverdale Middle School had made the shift for the rest of the week.
Over the 48 hours ending at 3 p.m. Wednesday, it said one student and one staff member at the school had tested positive for the virus.
An additional 21 students and one staff member had been placed in quarantine after being near an infected person.
On its website, the Mount Ida School District in western Arkansas said both of its schools were moving to virtual instruction for the rest of the week, starting Wednesday, in response to "an outbreak of infectious disease."
Kimberly Mundell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education's Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the district, which has about 420 students, cited a large number of absences because of covid-19 as well as the flu as a reason for the shift.
Earlier in the week, the 367-student Deer/Mount Judea School District in Newton County said classes at its Mount Judea campus would be held remotely for elementary school students starting Tuesday and for high school students starting Wednesday.
Starting next week, the three districts' schools are closed for the rest of the year for winter break.
According to the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement's website, the Little Rock district is the only one of the three with a requirement for students and employees to wear masks.
VARIANT WORRIES
Dillaha said she didn't know the reason for the spike in cases Wednesday or to what extent the omicron variant might be contributing to the numbers.
Although the variant hadn't been identified in Arkansas as of Wednesday, Dillaha said she was "confident" it was circulating in the state, given its rapid spread in other states.
Only a portion of the specimens from positive tests are sent to laboratories for sequencing to identify which variant caused the infection, she said, and it can take two or three weeks to get the results.
She said cases "will start trending upward as we experience the spread of the omicron variant in Arkansas."
"I just don't have a feel for how soon that will be, but it could be very soon," she said.
The spread of the variant increases the need for fully vaccinated people to get booster doses at the appropriate time, she said.
A growing number of reports suggests that, while the vaccines are less effective at preventing an infection from omicron than from earlier variants, the level of protection increases substantially after a booster dose.
"The boost dose increases the protection from infection itself -- not just hospitalization, not just severe illness, but helps prevent people from getting infected at all," Dillaha said.
"If people can keep from getting infected at all, then they can't spread it, and of course they can't progress to severe disease, and that's very important."
NORTHERN HOT SPOT
Benton County had the most new cases Wednesday, 90, followed by Washington County with 81 and Pulaski County with 68.
Compared with their populations, counties in northern Arkansas continued to have the largest number of cases that were active.
Newton County, the state's sixth-smallest by population, had 53 as of Wednesday, translating to a rate of about 70 per 10,000 residents, the highest rate in the state.
The four counties with the next-highest active case totals per 10,000 residents are all nearby: Marion County with 61, Madison County with 55, Searcy County with 51 and Boone County with 48.
Among the state's most populous counties, the number of active cases per 10,000 residents was about 15 in Pulaski County, 20 each in Benton and Washington counties, 30 in Sebastian County and 29 in Faulkner County.
An outsize portion of the new cases Wednesday were among Arkansans ages 25-44.
The 289 new cases among that age group translated to a rate of about 38 per 100,000 residents.
The number of new cases per 100,000 residents was about 36 for residents younger than 18, 31 for those age 18-24, 34 for those age 45-64 and 27 for those 65 and older.
The number for all age groups combined translated to a rate of about 34 per 100,000 residents.
CASES TOP 540,000
The state's cumulative count of cases rose Wednesday to 540,510.
Dillaha said six of the deaths reported Wednesday happened in September. The rest occurred within the past month.
She said 7.5% of the state's coronavirus tests were positive over the seven-day span ending Tuesday, down from initial reports of 7.7% for the week ending Monday and 8.6% for the week ending Dec. 7.
Hutchinson has said he wants to keep the percentage below 10%.
The number of people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with covid-19 grew Wednesday by 25, to 28,971.
The number of the state's virus patients who have ever been on ventilators with covid-19 rose by four, to 3,059.
VACCINATIONS DOWN
Meanwhile, the Health Department's tally of vaccine doses that had been administered rose by 10,022, the sixth daily increase in a row that was smaller than the one a week earlier.
Booster shots made up 52% of the most recent increase.
The count of first doses rose by 2,526, which was smaller by more than 1,100 than 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 10,319, while the average for first doses fell to 2,995.
Both have steadily fallen since hitting three-month highs of more than 12,000 total doses a day and 3,600 first doses a day the week ending Dec. 9.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of Arkansans who had received at least one dose remained Wednesday at 61.7%, and the percentage who were fully vaccinated remained at 50.4%.
The percentage of fully vaccinated people in the state who had received booster doses remained at 26.2%.
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 and 45th, ahead of Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Wyoming and Idaho, in the percentage that were fully vaccinated.
Nationally, 72.3% of people had received at least one dose, and 61.1% were fully vaccinated.
Of the fully vaccinated population nationally, 27.6% had received booster doses.