Virus-case count surpasses 15,000, state data shows

Deaths up by 10; covid-19’s spread in Hispanics, Marshallese scrutinized

Arkansas’ count of coronavirus cases topped 15,000 Saturday with an increase of 511 cases, including the state’s third-highest increase in cases among residents who are not prison inmates.

The state’s death toll from the virus increased by 10, to 224, while the overall count of cases rose to 15,142.

The number of patients hospitalized with covid-19, at record levels since Monday, rose by 9, to 240.

Fifty-nine of the patients were on ventilators, up from 57 a day earlier.

The cases added to the state’s total included six that were among prison inmates. Such cases are often added to the overall count several days after the test is performed, after information from laboratory reports is entered into a state database.

The remaining 505 marked the third-highest number of non-inmate cases added to the state’s total in a day.

The highest was Friday, when 662 such cases were added.

According to a state website, the number of cases grew by 99 in Washington County, 63 in Benton County, 54 in Pulaski County and 42 in Yell County.

Statewide, the number of cases that were active, meaning the person had tested positive and had not yet recovered, increased by 131, to 4,836.

Washington County, with 1,025 active cases, had the state’s highest total, followed by Benton County with 724.

Lee County, home to the East Arkansas Regional Unit near Brickeys, where at least 550 inmates have been infected, had 531 active cases. Pulaski County had 355.

Sevier County, population 17,007, had the next-highest total of active cases, with 353.

HISPANIC, MARSHALLESE

CASES

State Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said Saturday that the recent growth of cases among the Hispanic community in Northwest Arkansas and Sevier County appears to be accelerating.

Hispanics make up less than 8% of the state’s population but accounted for 23% of the state’s total cases as of Saturday, according to the state website.

“That’s of concern to us,” she said.

A team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that arrived in the state last week is analyzing Health Department data to study how transmission is occurring among Hispanics and the Marshallese, who also have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, she said.

“Anecdotally, we have heard that physical distancing and wearing masks have not been commonly used in those populations as protective measures and we’d like to understand that, and what can we do that would help communicate the need for that.”

This week, she said, the team plans to hold focus groups with members of the Hispanic and Marshallese communities in Northwest Arkansas.

“We’re wanting to know about things like what the community understands about testing, what does a positive test mean, [and] about isolation for people who [test positive] or are quarantined” after coming in contact with someone who has tested positive, Dillaha said.

“Many of the Latinx and the Marshallese live in large households, and they may not realize that the Health Department can provide them with resources to isolate or quarantine somewhere else so they don’t expose their family members,” she said.

For instance, she said, the state can arrange for a hotel room and food delivery for people who need to quarantine or isolate themselves away from home.

In Little Rock, the Health Department also has a “dormitory-type setting” that can accommodate 28 people affected by the virus who are homeless or who need to isolate themselves outside their own homes.

Many affected Hispanics work at poultry plants in Northwest Arkansas or other locations around the state where outbreaks have occurred.

As of late Thursday, Hispanics accounted for 337, or 56.6%, of the state’s 595 active cases among poultry workers.

In addition to outbreaks connected to Hispanic communities, Dillaha said, the Health Department has traced infections to church gatherings, funerals and other community events.

“It shows that when people don’t wear cloth face coverings and don’t maintain social distancing, it’s very easy for spread to occur,” Dillaha said.

Mireya Reith, executive director of Arkansas United, an immigrant-rights group based in Springdale, said last week that she spoke with members of the CDC team about the dynamics of the Hispanic community in Northwest Arkansas and the dangers at workplaces such as poultry plants.

She said the Health Department needs more bilingual contact tracers and that minority-group communities mostly need action that shows their lives are as valued as other people’s lives.

Eldon Alik, consul general for the Springdale consulate of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, said he told the CDC team that members of the Marshallese community need more answers and data as to how exactly they are contracting the virus, whether that be from poultry plants or other sources.

CASE GROWTH

Saturday’s increase capped a week in which the number of cases grew an average of 435 cases each day.

That was down slightly from the average increase of 441 cases a day as of Friday over a rolling seven-day period, but it was up from an average growth of 428 cases a day during the week that ended June 13.

The average growth over seven days as of Friday translated into 14.6 new cases a day per 100,000 residents in the state.

According to data from the Covid Tracking Project, which collects information from state health departments, that was the fourth-highest growth rate in the country.

Arizona had the highest growth rate, adding an average of 27 cases per 100,000 residents each day over seven days. It was followed by Alabama, which added an average of 15.4 cases a day per 100,000 residents, and South Carolina, where the increase was an average of 15.2 cases a day per 100,000 residents.

Vermont had the slowest rate, adding just over one case every other day per 100,000 residents.

Kansas, which last week added Arkansas to a list of states from which travelers must quarantine themselves for 14 days, had a growth rate of just five cases a day per 100,000 residents.

Measured by the average percentage daily growth in new cases, Arkansas’ growth rate of 3.4% a day was the third-highest in the country, behind Arizona, where cases grew 5.1% per day, and South Carolina, which had a 4% growth rate.

Last week also marked the beginning of Arkansas’ second phase of eased restrictions that were imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The change allowed restaurants, casinos and other businesses to use up to 66% of their capacity on their premises, instead of the 33% limitation during Phase 1 of easing restrictions.

State officials said they haven’t seen evidence tying Arkansas’ uptick in cases to the loosening of such restrictions, however.

LATEST DEATHS

Four of the deaths added to the state’s total on Saturday were in Pulaski County. That brought the county’s death toll, as tracked by the Health Department, to 52.

The death toll increased by two in Benton County, to 13.

Clay County had its first death from the virus.

The count of deaths increased by one each in Washington, Carroll and Phillips counties. That brought the death toll from the virus to 18 in Washington County, four in Carroll County and two in Phillips County.

One of the people who died was age 25 to 44 — the 13th Arkansan in that age group to be added to the Health Department’s count of deaths.

The deaths also included the 51st virus death of a person age 45-64.

The other eight people were 65 or older, bringing the number of deaths among senior Arkansans to 160.