Amid the surge in infections from the rapidly spreading omicron variant, the number of people hospitalized with covid-19 in Arkansas hit an all-time high on Tuesday, surpassing the peak of almost 1,500 it reached during the summer last year.
Reflecting a slowdown in testing over the holiday weekend, however, the state's count of cases rose by 3,213, the second daily increase in a row that was smaller than the one a week earlier.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by 15, to 9,452.
Rising by double-digits for the 19th day in a row, the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 jumped Tuesday by 67, to 1,487.
The previous record, according to daily figures released by the Health Department, was the 1,459 covid-19 patients who were in the state's hospitals on Aug. 16, 2021, during the surge powered by the delta variant.
Since Sunday, the number has been above the peak of 1,371 it reached on Jan. 11 during last winter's surge.
The numbers of the state's virus patients who were on ventilators and in intensive care on Tuesday, however, remained well below the levels they reached in the summer and last winter.
After rising the previous two days, the number fell Tuesday by one, to 171.
The number who were in intensive care rose by 14, to 381.
The number on ventilators peaked at 388 during the summer surge last year and at 268 last winter.
The number who were in intensive care peaked at 558 during the summer and 458 last winter.
While high compared to typical daily increases before the current surge, the increase in cases on Tuesday was less than half the size of the one the previous Tuesday.
After hitting an all-time high of 9,122 the week ending Sunday, the average daily increase over a rolling seven-day period fell Tuesday to 8,309.
The number of cases that were considered active, which reached a record 96,379 on Sunday, fell Tuesday by 4,373, to 88,938, as recoveries and deaths outpaced new cases.