SPP has postponed all in-person stakeholder meetings until further notice, the RTO said Tuesday, as its home state of Arkansas wrestles with a troubling uptick in COVID-19 cases.

The virus’s faster-spreading delta variant has hit the state hard. According to data reported by The New York Times, as of Tuesday, Arkansas has the highest number of new cases per 100,000 residents at 27, averaging 807 new cases a day. (Florida has the highest total daily average, at 3,392.)

Arkansas also has one of the lowest vaccine rates in the country, about 35%, leading Gov. Asa Hutchinson to declare on national television Sunday — when the state’s seven-day case average was at 697 — that his administration is “working hard” to overcome vaccine hesitancy. According to the Times, only Alabama and Mississippi have lower vaccination rates, both about 33%.

“Arkansas has been making national headlines for all the wrong reasons,” CEO Barbara Sugg said in a message to stakeholders.

The RTO said in May it would allow in-person meetings at its Little Rock headquarters in August and an in-person option for this month’s Board of Directors, Members Committee and Regional State Committee meetings. Those meetings will return to the virtual format SPP has been using since March 2020.

“The health and wellbeing of all of you, as well as our employees, are of utmost importance to us,” Sugg said. “We appreciate and value the importance of being able to meet face to face and will resume meeting in person when it is safe to do so.”

Sugg closed her message with a personal appeal: “Please get vaccinated if you’ve not already done so!”