ARKANSAS MOVES to begin vaccinating youths.

New cases increase by 224; death toll adds 7; hospitalizations flat at 169

A federal panel’s recommendations on Wednesday cleared the way for many Arkansas health care providers to begin administering covid-19 vaccinations to children age 12-15.

Although Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday said the approximately 160,000 of the state’s children in that age group had been cleared to receive the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, many physicians and pharmacists had been holding off until the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee, led by Arkansas Health Secretary Jose Romero, signaled its approval.

Kavanaugh Pharmacy in Little Rock had some vaccination appointments for the newly eligible children scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, after the recommendations were expected to be issued, co-owner Anne Pace said.

She said she’d seen an uptick in the appointments being booked through the

pharmacy’s website since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the shots for the new age group on Monday.

“I think over the next week or so we’ll see a good amount of kids vaccinated,” Pace said.

“I don’t know that it’s going to make huge difference in kind of the percentage of the people in the state [getting the shots] because I think still a lot of people are hesitant, and so that’s going to trickle down to their children as well.”

Department of Health figures on Wednesday indicated the pace of vaccinations in the state had continued to slow, with the average number of doses administered each day over a rolling seven-day period, including second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, dropping below 10,000 for the first time since Feb. 24.

Meanwhile, the state’s count of coronavirus cases rose by 224 — the second daily increase in a row that was smaller than the one a week earlier.

For the third straight day, the number of Arkansans hospitalized with covid-19 remained at 169.

The state’s death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by seven, to 5,777.

“Our active cases have declined by over 100 since this time last week, signaling a continued trend in the right direction,” Hutchinson said in a tweet.

“We hope to see vaccination numbers increase, especially for those in the 12-15-year-old category. The doses are available, so get your shot today.” FLURRY OF CALLS Arkansas Pharmacists Association CEO John Vinson said Hutchinson’s announcement Tuesday triggered a flurry of calls and emails from pharmacists.

“Their phone lines have been hot,” Vinson said. “They’ve gotten a lot of calls from parents wanting to schedule appointments, and they wanted clarity or advice on” when they should start giving the shots.

He said some pharmacists were required by a federal law or their agreement with a physician governing vaccine administration to wait for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations before administering shots to the new age group.

Other pharmacists could have started giving them earlier but wanted to see details of the recommendations, such as whether the shots should be given at the same time as other vaccines. Revising an earlier CDC recommendation, the committee said they can be given at the same time.

He said the association on Tuesday said its members should wait until the recommendations were issued.

“We’ve been advising people to get their paperwork updated, to get their procedures updated and to implement any guidance that’s voted on” by the committee, Vinson said.

The association also recommends pharmacists encourage parents to take their children to the doctor for annual checkups and make sure they’re up to date on their childhood immunizations, Vinson said.

Gary Wheeler, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Arkansas chapter, said Tuesday that most of the state’s pediatricians would also wait for the advisory committee’s recommendations before giving the shots to children age 12-15.

Because the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures and comes in a minimum shipment size of 1,170 doses, its regular distribution to community-based pharmacies has been limited to those in about 14 of the state’s most populous counties, with some pharmacies and hospitals delivering it to other providers under a huband-spoke model, Vinson said.

Now that more children are eligible for the shots, he said, some pharmacies that previously received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which have only been authorized for adults, have requested Pfizer.

The FDA in December authorized the Pfizer vaccine for people 16 and older.

“I think there are definite ly pockets out there in counties that we need to reach, and when you’ve got age 12 to 17 instead of just 16 and 17 year-olds, it makes it more feasible that you could offer the service and not have a lot of wasted doses,” Vinson said.

EXPANDING ACCESS

State Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said the state was working to make the Pfizer vaccine available to the 375 health care providers in the state, including the Health Department’s 92 local health units, that participate in a federal program that provides free vaccines for children.

Those providers will receive Pfizer doses from other nearby providers with ultra-cold freezers or from the Health Department’s headquarters in Little Rock, she said.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences announced Wednesday that it would start offering the vaccine to children age 12-15 today at its vaccination clinics in Little Rock and on its Northwest Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.

CVS Health said it would also offer the shots to children in that age group todayat its more than 5,600 stores nationwide, including eight in Arkansas, that carry Pfizer.

Kavanaugh Pharmacy extended the hours at its nearby vaccination center to allow more time after school for children to get the shots, Pace said.

She said it had also scheduled a clinic for children age 12 and older, as well as their parents, on Friday at Episcopal Collegiate School.

The school agreed to hold the second dose clinic, in June, on its campus, even though it will come after the end of the school year, Pace said.

“We already know that there is a group of students that are going to be gone at camp that week,” so the pharmacy is making arrangements to give them their second doses at the store or vaccination center, Pace said.

She said the pharmacy, which already supplies Pfizer to a few other drug stores, has also agreed to provide doses to a pediatric clinic in Little Rock and is open to supplying it to others.

Among the almost 80,000 children statewide ages 16-17, uptake so far has been light.

Health Department figures indicate that 15.5% had received at least one vaccine dose as of Wednesday, and 8.9% were fully vaccinated.

By comparison, 45.7% of the state’s adults had received at least one vaccine dose, and 35.3% were fully vaccinated.

According to the CDC, the number of Arkansans of all ages who had received at least one vaccine dose rose Wednesday by 3,412, to 1,116,295, representing about 37% of the population.

The number who had been fully vaccinated rose by 6,023, to 852,811, or about 28.3% of the population.

Unlike the Health Department’s figures, the CDC’s include doses administered by federal entities such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the military and the Bureau of Prisons.

The CDC data also includes Arkansans who were vaccinated in other states except Texas, which reports only aggregate information to the federal agency.

According to the agency, Arkansas continued to rank 44th among the states and District of Columbia in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one vaccine dose.

It fell from No. 47 to No. 48 — ahead of only Utah, Alabama and Mississippi — in the percentage of its residents who had been fully vaccinated.

Nationally, 46.4% of people had received at least one vaccine dose and 35.4% were fully vaccinated.

CASE NUMBERS ‘ENCOURAGING’

Dillaha said four of the deaths reported Wednesday happened in early April, and the others occurred within the past month.

The increase in cases was smaller by nine than the one a day earlier and by 74 than the one the previous Wednesday.

The average number of cases added to the state’s tallies over a rolling seven-day period fell by almost 11, to 183.

That was still up from this year’s low of 151 per day during the week ending April 2 but down from an average of 210 a day the week ending May 5.

Dillaha called the numbers “encouraging.”

“I think that the number of people getting vaccinated is contributing to it in some locations, and the schools seem to be controlling it very well for the end of the school year,” she said. “I think that’s all working toward having a good summer break.”

After rising the previous two days, the number of the state’s virus patients who were on ventilators fell Wednesday by two, to 42.

The cases that were added to the state’s tallies included 133 that were confirmed through polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests.

The other 91 were “probable” cases, which include those identified through less-sensitive antigen tests.

The state’s cumulative count of cases rose to 338,043.

That comprised 264,425 confirmed cases and 73,618 probable ones.

The number of cases that were considered active fell by five, to 2,038, as recoveries outpaced new cases.

Pulaski County had the most new cases, 44, followed by Benton County, which had 34, and Saline County, which had 20.

The Health Department didn’t report any new cases among prison and jail inmates.

The state’s death toll rose by one, to 4,585, among confirmed cases and by six, to 1,192 among probable cases.

Among nursing home and assisted living facility residents, the state’s count of virus deaths remained at 2,081.

The number of people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with covid-19 grew by 12, to 16,037.

The number of the state’s virus patients who have ever been on a ventilator rose by two, to 1,639.