An uptick in new coronavirus cases continued Friday as Arkansas' case count rose by 207, and the number of covid-19 patients in the state's hospitals grew for the second day in a row.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, rose by one, to 11,404.
While smaller than the increases the previous two days, the rise in cases on Friday was larger by 68 than the one the previous Friday.
It marked the first time the count had risen by more than 200 on three consecutive days since March, 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 the continuation of the spread of the omicron variant," Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the Health Department's chief medical officer, said Friday.
"It's so infectious, it's finding pockets of people who are not immune and infecting them, and it likely is having more opportunity to do that now that few people are wearing masks and they're going about their social activities that they weren't before."
A new, more contagious version of omicron known as BA.2.12.1 is likely also contributing to the uptick, she said.
While the trend could continue as people's immunity from previous infections wanes, Dillaha said she's hoping the overall level will remain well below what the state experienced during previous waves.
"I would say that on a community or societal level, the situation is not worrisome at present," Dillaha said.
"I think, though, when people assess their own risk, for some people it could still be worrisome, especially if they are someone who is at risk for increased illness."
Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Thursday that Dillaha had been named the next director of the Health Department, replacing Dr. Jose Romero, who has accepted a job with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Romero, whose last day on the job was Friday, also held the title of health secretary, a Cabinet-level position.
Hutchinson said department Chief of Staff Renee Mallory would become interim health secretary after Romero's departure.
Dillaha and Mallory officially start their new jobs Sunday, a Health Department spokeswoman said Thursday.
ACTIVE CASES RISE
The average daily increase in Arkansas' coronavirus case count over a rolling seven-day period rose Friday to 156, its highest level since the week ending March 28.
With new cases outnumbering recoveries, the number of cases in the state that were considered active rose by 65, to 1,830, the largest number since March 14.
Greene County, which has posted some of the state's largest new case numbers in recent weeks, had the third-highest number, 23, on Friday.
Pulaski County had the most new cases 34, followed by Washington County with 24.
The state's 15th-largest county by population, Greene County also had the fourth-highest number of cases that were active as of Friday as its total rose by 13, to 84.
Pulaski County had the most, 368, followed by Washington County with 203 and Benton County with 182.
Dillaha said she didn't know why Greene County has had so many new cases recently.
"Unfortunately, we lose a lot of our ability to obtain that information without case investigation," she said.
Citing the ballooning number of cases during the omicron surge, the Health Department in January stopped conducting contact tracing and said it would limit case investigations to those involving people 18 and younger.
Dillaha said Friday the department no longer conducts any covid-19 case investigations.
Such investigations, she has said, involve gathering information about the person's illness, such as when the symptoms started and where the infection might have occurred, and telling the person to isolate.
After rising by 10 on Thursday, the number of covid-19 patients in the state's hospitals rose Friday by eight, to 58, its highest level since April 13. Except for the jump on Thursday, it was the largest single-day increase in the number hospitalized since January.
The number of the state's virus patients who were on ventilators remained for a second day at 12, which was down from 13 as of Wednesday.
The number who were in intensive care, which rose by three on Thursday, fell Friday by one, to 19.
AVOIDING REINFECTION
Since it's thought that the immunity conferred by an infection typically wanes after about three months, Dillaha said it's possible some of the people who were infected during the omicron surge in the winter are getting infected again.
Getting vaccinated can reduce the chance of such reinfections, she said.
In fact, she said, vaccination after an infection provides better protection than vaccination or infection alone.
"The people who are likely to be most protected are the people who have had an infection with the variant and have also been vaccinated," she said.
To optimize their immune responses, she said people can wait three months after an infection to get vaccinated, although those at high risk for reinfection or severe covid-19 may want to get vaccinated sooner.
VACCINATIONS DOWN
The Health Department's tally of vaccine doses that had been administered rose Friday by 1,541, the eighth daily increase in a row that was smaller than the one a week earlier.
About 40% of the most recent increase was from doses classified on the department's online 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 401, which was smaller by 87 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 1,384, its lowest level since the week ending April 1.
The average for first doses fell to 298, the first time it had been below 300 since the week ending March 31.
According to the CDC, the percentage of Arkansans who had received at least one dose remained Friday 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 fell from being roughly tied with Tennessee for 45th to tied with Idaho for 46th, ahead of 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.