The ongoing spike of covid-19 cases in Arkansas included 472 new cases Saturday, the largest increase for a Saturday since March 19 and the third-largest daily increase since March 22, when the Arkansas Department of Health was still tallying a backlog of case reports from the omicron wave of the pandemic in December and January.
The state has now seen 845,647 covid-19 cases, with 3,208 last week, and Saturday's increase was 96 more than the one on May 28.
Last week's cases also totaled 837 more than the previous week's total, according to Health Department data.
Active, or currently infectious, cases also continued to rise with 270 on Saturday, for a total of 4,799, the highest since March 1 and 853 more than the total on May 28.
Pulaski County had the most new cases Saturday with 95, Benton County had 47 and Washington County had 36, according to Health Department data.
The department recorded no new deaths of covid-19 Saturday, leaving the total at 11,948. The death toll of 20 people in a seven-day period was the lowest in more than two weeks.
Three fewer people were hospitalized with covid-19 Saturday than Friday, totaling 94, though 29 more people were hospitalized Saturday than on May 28. The number of patients on ventilators remained in the single digits, dropping by two and totaling five on Saturday. There were 23 patients in intensive care Saturday, two more than Friday and seven more than May 28.
On Saturday, 1,732 covid-19 vaccines were given, including 1,131 boosters, according to Health Department data.
Department data also showed that 1,615,947 Arkansans age 5 and older have been fully vaccinated against covid-19.
A data cleanup within the Health Department reduced the total number of vaccine doses administered by more than 20,000 last week.