LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas' known coronavirus cases again topped 2,000 in a single day and hospitalizations remained at a record level Tuesday, state officials said.
Arkansas recorded 2,122 new cases of COVID-19 and 18 deaths. Hospitalizations rose to a new high of 988, increasing by 14 from Monday's record level.
Arkansas Department of Health Secretary Dr. Jose Romero urged residents to celebrate Thanksgiving safely by wearing a mask around people from outside their households.
"We don't want to see these numbers increase after the holidays because that is a very grave possibility today," he said.
A weekly report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, released Tuesday by the state health department, said Arkansas remained in the red zone based on the number of new cases last week.
There were about 775 new cases per 100,000 people in Arkansas over the past two weeks, which ranks 25th in the country for new cases per capita, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. One in every 255 people in Arkansas tested positive in the past week.
Meanwhile, the Southeastern Conference announced Monday that Arkansas' football game against Missouri, which had been set for this weekend, would be postponed because of COVID issues within the Razorbacks program.