Timberlane reports COVID-19 case; five new county cases in all

The Arkansas Department of Health reported the first COVID19 case to hit Timberlane Health and Rehab Friday.

One worker at Timberlane has tested positive, according to the ADH. They join 22 workers, 13 of whom have recovered, at Courtyard Healthcare and Rehabilitation, two workers at Advanced Health and Rehab of Union County and three workers at Community Living Arrangements, all Union County-based congregate living facilities.

Courtyard and Community Living Arrangements have also reported COVID-19 cases in residents. At Courtyard, five residents have died as a result of the virus, while 35 in all have tested positive for it, with two having reportedly recovered, leaving 28 active cases within the facility; and at Community Living Arrangements, nine residents have tested positive.

In Union County as a whole, five new cases were reported, bringing the number of cumulative local cases to 199. According to the ADH, 160 of those are considered recovered, while 28 — 14% — are still active. No new deaths were reported locally; so far, 11 Union County residents have died as a result of the virus.

The new local cases come as Arkansas announced its largest one-day increase in cases since the first case was reported March 11. Gov. Asa Hutchinson said 731 new cases were identified between Thursday and Friday, a record for new community cases and cases in general. In all, 11,547 Arkansans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since March. Of the new cases, only 207 were in

prison inmates, while the remaining 524 were in the community or nursing home residents; 199 workers at a Tyson plant in Springdale were included in Friday’s new cases, Hutchinson said, noting only one of the workers was showing symptoms at the time they were tested.

Hutchinson said the outbreak at the Tyson plant highlights the importance of wearing masks in public spaces where social distancing is not possible, since many who have COVID-19 may be asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. The virus is tdays, where a person is contagious despite not showing symptoms.

However, Hutchinson said he didn’t believe it was feasible to broadly require masks in public. While workers at many businesses are required by the state to wear face masks, and restaurant patrons are asked to wear masks while waiting for their orders, it has largely been left up to businesses to impose mask requirements on patrons.

“That would not be enforceable,” Hutchinson said during a press conference Friday. “It would not be realistic in a rural state whenever they can socially distance in many circumstances.”

On Monday, Arkansas will begin Phase II of its reopening after starting the process on May 4. Many businesses will be allowed to increase their capacity to two-thirds as much as they could typically hold, and some restrictions on elective dental procedures will also be lifted.

Hospitalizations in Arkansas also hit a new record, breaking 200 for the first time to reach 203 total residents in the hospital as a result of COVID19 as of Friday. Of those, 49 are on ventilator support, according ADH.

Five more Arkansans died as a result of COVID-19 between Thursday and Friday, bringing the state’s death toll to 176, indicating a statewide mortality rate of 1.5%.

The increase in cases statewide has been attributed by Hutchinson, in large part, to increased testing, though he did acknowledge earlier this week that it doesn’t explain the spike totally. The overall positivity rate has stayed relatively steady since testing capacity increased in May.

The ADH reported 5,895 negative test results Friday, making 175,470 negative test results reported in all. The one-day positivity rate for Arkansas Friday was 11%, while the overall positivity rate was 6.17%.

In Union County, 130 new negative test results were reported along with the five new cases, indicating a oneday positivity rate of 3.7% and an overall positivity rate of 9.7%. In all, 2,042 test results have been reported for the county, with 1,843 having returned negative.

Johns Hopkins University reported 2,043,656 cases in the United States at 6:30 p.m. Friday; of those, 547,386 are considered recovered, leaving 1,381,799 cases — 67.6% — active nationwide. There were 114,471 total deaths resulting from COVID-19 in Americans reported Friday, indicating a national mortality rate of 5.6%.

Johns Hopkins also reported 7,617,591 COVID-19 cases worldwide Friday afternoon; of those, 3,601,584 are considered recovered, leaving 4,026,171 — 52.8% — active worldwide. There were 424,587 total deaths reported worldwide Friday afternoon, indicating a global mortality rate of 5.57%. to the