Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Testing ‘surge’ planned in state
LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Thursday unveiled a plan for increasing coronavirus testing in the state, including a campaign aimed at creating a “surge” of tests today and Saturday.
He said he wants to increase testing from an average of about 1,000 a day to 1,500 on those days.
“There’s an inventory available out there for testing right now all across the state of Arkansas,” the governor said. “And so Arkansans, we’re asking you for the next two days, if you’ve thought about it before, if you think you’ve got symptoms or you’ve got flulike symptoms, or you’re in an at-risk category and you’ve been traveling, go in there. Let’s get tested.”
Following the recommendations of medical professionals, the strategy includes guidance to health care providers they should test anyone with possible exposure to the virus — whether or not the patient has symptoms.
Previously, the state Department of Health recommended such patients be quarantined for 14 days and tested only if they develop symptoms.
On Thursday, the state’s official count of cases increased 207, to 2,599, while its death toll from the virus increased one, to 45.
The statewide case total still didn’t include all of the infections associated with an outbreak at the Cummins Unit in Lincoln County, where the number of infections among inmates increased six to 687, and among staff by 21, to 35.
According to the Health Department, cases from the prison outbreak are being added to the state’s total as information from laboratory reports are entered into a state database.
Inmates accounted for 122 of the 189 cases added to the state count from Wednesday to Thursday afternoon, Health Secretary Nate Smith said.
STRATEGY OUTLINED
Smith said increased testing will allow the department to “identify those who are infected, interrupt or stop the spread of covid-19, and ultimately save lives.”
“I know that a week or two ago, many people expressed frustration about our lack of capacity,” Smith said. “Now, if you consider our commercial sector, the [University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences] lab, the Department of Health lab and some other hospitals that are doing testing as well, we’re not fully utilizing that capacity, and we need to know. If people have symptoms of covid-19, we need to have that answer, both for their benefit and also for us to know as a state.”
In the past, shortages of laboratory capacity, masks and other protective medical gear needed to do tests led the Health Department to issue restrictive guidelines on whom providers should test.
Arkansas’ large purchases of protective equipment from overseas suppliers and shipments from hospitals’ own vendors alleviated those concerns, state officials said.
“In my discussions with the hospitals, they’re in good shape right now,” Hutchinson said. “It’s something they always worry about for the future and that’s why you don’t want to completely deplete their inventory of [personal protective equipment] and swabs.”
But he said most hospitals “can do this surge comfortably and still have that inventory that’s needed.”
In support of the effort, Baptist Health, which already had several drive-through testing sites around the state, announced it’ll add sites in Little Rock, North Little Rock and Fort Smith from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Saturday.
Any Arkansan who wants a test should call his or her health care provider as an initial step, Hutchinson said.
The test should be available at no charge to the patient, he said.
“If they want a test, they get a test, period,” Hutchinson said.
The Health Department will do tests itself when tracking people who had contact with someone infected, even if those people don’t yet have symptoms.
It will also recommend screening people in certain “high-risk settings,” such as hospitals and nursing homes.
TRENDING UPWARD
Even excluding the inmate cases, Hutchinson acknowledged the number of positive tests had been trending upward the past couple days, potentially putting the state off track to meet criteria set out in White House guidelines for easing restrictions, which Hutchinson has said he wants to start on May 4.
During afternoon press conferences, state officials reported 25 non-inmate cases Monday, 42 on Tuesday, 36 on Wednesday and 67 on Thursday.
The guidelines call for states to have a downward trajectory a two-week peri- od before beginning to lift restrictions.
“May 4 is closer than 14 days, and we have had a couple days in which our cases have gone up,” he said.
He said he’ll be considering “multiple factors” and consulting with public health officials as he decides what restrictions will be relaxed.
Limitations on court services — which had been set to be lifted on May 1 — were extended until at least May 15 by the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday. The high court’s order also directed courts to hold any necessary hearings remotely over video or teleconference.
According to data from the Covid Tracking Project, which collects information from state health departments, Arkansas ranked 34th, with about 10.5 tests per 1,000 residents.
Mississippi, which had more than 5,000 identified cases, ranked 13th, with 18.6 tests per 1,000 residents.
But the data also showed, after previously ranking behind all its surrounding states except Texas, Arkansas pulled ahead of Missouri, which had 9.7 tests per 1,000 residents.
NURSING HOME TOLL
The 44th and 45th deaths added to the state’s total were both Washington County residents, the first people in the county to die from the virus.
Washington County Coroner
Roger Morris said a 49-year-old man died Tuesday and a 59-year-old woman died Wednesday. Both were from the Springdale area, he said.
Information from coroner’s reports and other sources also showed that two of the state’s deaths were of residents of The Waters of White Hall nursing home, where infections have been confirmed among 21 residents and 19 staff members.
Norma Jean Smith, 87, died two weeks ago at Jefferson Regional Medical Center from cardio-respiratory arrest with covid-19 as a contributing factor, according to a Jefferson County coroner’s office report.
Smith lived for roughly two years at Waters of White Hall before she died, according to a family member, who asked not to be named.
Gerald “Bruce” Lawson, 85, died at the nursing home Monday of respiratory distress caused by covid-19, according to a coroner’s report
Smith was admitted to Jefferson Regional on April 4 from the nursing home with symptoms consistent with pneumonia, kidney failure and congenital heart failure, the family member said.
She tested positive for covid-19 on the same day, and her death certificate shows she died on April 11, the family member said.
Lawson moved into the
home last fall to receive wound-care treatment following a surgery, his wife, Rachel Lawson, said.
She said her husband, who had Parkinson’s disease, later moved to the long-term wing of the home.
She said she was trying to line up a 24-hour in-home care provider before bringing home her husband of 59 years when the global pandemic reached Arkansas.
She said he was diagnosed with covid-19 on April 8.
Her husband founded Lawson Welding Supply in 1983. After retirement, he joined the staff of Family Church of White Hall, where he implemented 12-step program called Celebrate Recovery and worked as a counselor, among other tasks.
“My husband was a wonderful man who touched a lot of lives,” Rachel Lawson said.
The Health Department also said Thursday that a fifth resident of Briarwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Little Rock had died.
That, and the deaths at The Waters of White Hall, brought the number of publicly reported nursing home deaths linked to the virus the state to 11.
At Briarwood, the nursing home with the state’s largest outbreak, a Health Department reported showed the number of residents and staff members who have tested positive increasing by one on Thursday, making a total of 48 residents and 17 staff members.
The report also showed that a worker had tested positive for the first time at The Green House Cottages of Poplar Grove in Little Rock and at Summit Health and Rehab Center in Taylor.
That brought the number of nursing homes where at least one resident or worker who has tested positive to three.
The number known infections increased by four, to 182, among residents and by three, to 99, among staff members.
The number of hospitalized covid-19 patients statewide increased by four, to 101, on Thursday afternoon.
Twenty-three of the patients were on ventilators, an increase of one from the a day earlier.
As more cases were added to the Health Department’s database, the number listed on a state website for Lincoln County increased by 118, to 630, from Wednesday evening to Thursday evening.
In Pulaski County, the number of cases increased 13, to 427. Among other counties with at least 100 cases, the number increased 13, to 427, in Pulaski County, by nine, to 156, in Crittenden County, and by six, to 142, in Jefferson County.
The number remained unchanged at 109 in Garland County.
Information for this story was contributed by John Moritz of the