Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Three more Arkansans die in covid-19 outbreak
LITTLE ROCK — The deaths of three more Arkansans — including one more nursing home resident — from the coronavirus were announced Thursday as the number of cases in the state rose above 1,100.
The state Department of Human Services also announced the Department of Health is investigating an outbreak of the virus at the 224-bed Arkansas State Hospital, where seven patients have tested positive.
At his daily news conference on the pandemic, Gov. Asa Hutchinson pointed to yet more evidence restrictions he imposed and Arkansans’ compliance with public health recommendations
are working to slow the spread of the virus.
He also warned Arkansans, as the weekend and Easter approaches, not to “take anything for granted.”
“We don’t need to be out with 20 friends,” he said
“It might be good weather. We need to restrain ourselves. We need to follow the guidelines, and wear your mask if you can’t socially distance. Protect yourself and protect others.”
THREE NEW DEATHS
The 69 new cases brought the state’s total to 1,146, while the three deaths, the most reported by the state in a single day since the virus was discovered on March 11, brought the state’s death toll to 21.
One of those who died recently was a resident at Willowbend Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Marion, where another resident died of covid-19 earlier.
“Not unlike any other medical situation, neither [the Arkansas Health Care Association] or Willowbend at Marion can comment on patient specific details,” Rachel Bunch, director of the association, which represents nursing homes, said in an email.
Another was Richard Richardson, 60, of Little Rock.
According to a coroner’s report, he was admitted to a hospital Monday with respiratory distress and tested positive for covid-19.
An investigator with the coroner’s office said Richardson had a history of diabetes and high blood pressure.
State Department of Health Secretary Nate Smith said only that two of the people who died were in their 60s and the other was in his or her 70s.
According to the Health Department, five of the state’s deaths have been at nursing homes.
A state website listing Health Department data indicated the other death was in Hempstead County.
STATE HOSPITAL
At the State Hospital, the first patient began running a fever and having other symptoms Tuesday and was tested and isolated, the Human Services Department said in a news release.
The positive result came back Wednesday.
The other nine patients in the unit and 10 employees were tested Wednesday night, the department said.
The results Thursday afternoon showed six patients were positive. One test result was still pending. All the employees tested negative, the department said.
The department noted no visitors have been allowed in the psychiatric hospital since March 12. Employees undergo screening, including having their temperature taken, before each shift.
“ASH will follow all directives and guidelines from the Heath Department to protect the health and safety of all patients and staff of the hospital,” the Human Services Department said in the release.
HOSPITALIZATION PROJECTIONS
At the news conference Hutchinson displayed a chart showing the 73 Arkansans who were hospitalized with covid-19 Thursday was less than half of what the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicted.
The projections, which are frequently updated with new data, as of Wednesday predicted 188 Arkansans would be hospitalized Thursday, with the number increasing to a peak of 359 on April 25.
The original version, dated March 25, predicted a peak of 2,183 hospitalizations on April 25.
“A month ago, you would have seen this red line go through the roof,” Hutchinson said, pointing to the line showing the predicted hospitalizations.
He also displayed a map and bar graph showing the Arkansas’ 2.6 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents was the lowest rate among the 11 states in the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference.
Texas had the next lowest rate, with 5.9 patients in the hospital per 100,000 residents, while Louisiana had the highest, 43.7 hospitalized patients per 100,000 residents.
“It’s not basketball, but this is covid-19, and we’re grateful because Arkansas is really showing that it’s up to the task,” Hutchinson said.
Arkansas Department of Health spokesman Danyelle McNeill said the information was collected from state websites this week.
“Some states report the hospitalization rates daily, whereas others reported those on a less than daily basis,” she said.
Another chart used orange bars to show changes since March 11 in the growth of cases in the state each day as well as in individual counties.
Hutchinson pointed to some counties, such as Cleburne — where dozens of members of a church have tested positive — and Benton, where the growth had almost slowed to a halt.
“Hats off to Cleburne County for their success and how they’ve reduced that spread,” Hutchinson said.
In Pulaski County, however, which has the largest number of cases, the number of people testing positive increased 20, to 221, from Wednesday evening to Thursday evening.
ABORTION CLINIC INSPECTED
Hutchinson said the Health Department inspected the Little Rock Family Planning Clinic to see if it was compliance with a department directive, issued Friday requiring health care facilities, “including ambulatory surgery centers and abortion facilities,” to delay procedures, tests and office visits, “that can be safely postponed.”
Texas officials have said a similar order in their state, ostensibly meant to preserve medical gear and hospital capacity amid the pandemic, prohibits abortions that aren’t necessary to protect the mother’s life or health.
Hutchinson has said Arkansas’ order is “almost identical” to Texas’ but hasn’t been as explicit about its intended effect on abortions.
A federal judge on Thursday for a second time blocked Texas’ order from banning elective abortions, saying providers can continue doing some abortions while their lawsuit challenging the order is pending, according to The Associated Press.
“The concern is for all the clinics that are in an urban areas that do elective procedures that are not time sensitive, that they delay operations,” Hutchinson said.
At the Little Rock abortion clinic, Smith said the department found “a significant portion of the patients were coming from surrounding states, and advised them to discourage that” to prevent people with covid-19 from coming into the state.
“If they choose to do that, I think that would be a good thing, and if they don’t, just like if it were any other medical or surgical center bring people from out of state, we would consider further directives,” Smith said.
Asked if Arkansas’ order prohibits abortions, Smith said, “We discourage any kind of elective procedure, anything that can be postponed, for obvious reasons.
“For all of our surgical centers for example, we realize that the judgment on whether something can wait or not safely really needs to be primarily made by that clinical provider.”
Bettina Brownstein, an attorney for the clinic, said the clinic is “considering the health care of its patients and abiding by the directives of the Department of Health.”
WAIVER TALKS ONGOING
Meanwhile, Human Services Department spokesman Amy Webb said Thursday she was mistaken a day earlier when she said the department hadn’t heard from federal officials on its request for a waiver allowing it to spend $116 million in Medicaid funds to provide relief to nursing-home workers, doctors, hospitals and others.
She said the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asked the department to shift some components of its request to “a new vehicle they announced last week — a disaster State Amendment Plan.”
Hutchinson said one issue is “a debate about whether that should be provided by Medicaid funds” or other federal money for coronavirus disaster relief.
“I stressed the urgency of it,” Hutchinson said. “We can’t wait, because [the other funds are] not going to coming until late April, and then by the time you make decisions on that, that’s not quick enough for our workers.”
NEW CASES
The number of Arkansans who were hospitalized fell by three from a day earlier. Smith said that reflected 24 people who had been discharged and 21 new admissions.
The number of people people on ventilators increased one, to 31.
Eighteen of those who tested positive were health care workers, raising the number of such workers who have tested positive to 158.
Eight nursing home residents and four workers at the facilities were also among those testing positive, raising the total number residents who have tested positive to 82 and staff members to 49, according to the Health Department.
Fifteen residents and two workers at Daughters of the Other Side, a faith-based substance abuse program in Higginson, near Searcy, have also tested positive, according to a Health Department report.
It also listed a worker at one of the state’s human development centers, which house the developmentally disabled, as having tested positive.
Information for this story was contributed by Eric Besson of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.