Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Governor raises concern on virus hospitalizations
Gov. Asa Hutchinson expressed concern Monday over the number of covid-19 hospitalizations in Arkansas — which reached a new high of 471 in the afternoon — say- ing that current case levels have the potential to strain hospital resources and staffs.
On Monday, the state Department of Health said it had identified 699 new cases of the virus over the previous 24 hours, bringing the cumulative number of cases in the state to 33,927. Of those, 7,167 cases are considered active, according to interim Health Secretary Jose Romero.
Romero replaces Health Secretary Nate Smith, whose last day at the governor’s coronavirus news briefings was Friday. Smith is taking a position with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The death toll from the virus rose by six on Monday, to 363.
The governor presented a graph at his briefing Monday that showed Arkansas leading all but one of its
neighboring states — Mississippi — in the number of hospitalizations per 100,000 people. He also announced that he was deploying 10 members of the Arkansas National Guard to assist case management work at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville.
“You’ve got a number of states, including Texas, that is getting so much publicity with their hospital capacity, but we have more in terms of per capita hospitalizations than even some of those larger states,” Hutchinson said.
The deployment of National Guard personnel to aid Washington Regional follows a similar deployment of troops to UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock earlier in the pandemic, Hutchinson said.
Stephanie Williams, the chief of staff for the Health Department, said the members of the National Guard sent to Washington Regional would alleviate some of the workload for nurses, allowing them to spend more time with patients.
“One of the consistent problems has been adequate nursing staff in our hospital facilities,” Williams said. “These case managers will be doing things that you don’t necessarily have to have a nurse to do. Normally, a nurse might do them, but by having these additional staff now, it frees up a nurse to do things only a nurse can do.”
In a statement Monday, Washington Regional Medical System Chief Operating Officer Birch G. Wright said the hospital had recently opened a third critical care unit and was not in danger of reaching full capacity, despite what he said was a “prolonged surge” of covid-19 patients.
“In addition to the request we have made of the National Guard, we have posted positions for additional staff and asked our community health care partners for individuals with critical care experience to work on an as-needed basis in Washington Regional’s critical care units,” Wright said.
The statewide high of 471 covid-19 patients in the hospital represented an increase of 18 patients since Sunday, according to the Health Department. Of those, 111 were on ventilators, an increase of six.
The governor said he has not received additional requests for National Guard help from other hospitals.
MASK ORDER
The statewide mask mandate ordered by Hutchinson last week went into effect Monday, and it received a defense from the Republican governor after four legislators from his own party led a small rally protesting the mandate shortly before the coronavirus news briefing.
In an apparent reference to the group, which included several farmers and a parade of tractors carrying American flags, the governor said he grew up on a farm in Northwest Arkansas where “neighbors help neighbors.”
The governor’s order applies to people who are in public and unable to keep 6 feet of distance from others. It includes exceptions for children, certain workers and people with medical conditions.
A large number of scientific and medical groups, including the CDC, have recommended that people wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus through tiny respiratory droplets.
The lawmakers who spoke out against the mandate, however, expressed resentment that the governor had not sought legislative approval to impose the mandate.
“The fact that we can’t trust our own citizens to take care of our lives, that’s not the country I grew up in,” Sen. Gary Stubblefield of Branch told the crowd of about 30 protesters, almost all of whom were mask-less despite their close proximity to others.
The other lawmakers who spoke at the rally were Rep. Mary Bentley of Perryville, Rep. Cindy Crawford of Fort Smith and Rep. Brandt Smith of Jonesboro.
A number of sheriffs and police chiefs have also spoken out against the order, saying they will only enforce it partially or not at all.
Responding to that criticism Monday, Hutchinson said the mask mandate had been a reasonable step toward protecting public health.
“Whenever you’re in a public health crisis, asking people to take a step to protect one another, that’s what you have to do,” Hutchinson said. “When it comes to law enforcement, I’ve been very pleased with the response. Certainly, you have some that expressed their opinion on the matter, but by and large, they’re law enforcement officers, and they don’t pick and choose as to what law they’re going to enforce.”
GOVERNORS’ GROUP
A group of Republican governors who have taken to holding regular conference calls at night without the participation of members of President Donald Trump’s administration or the governors’ Democratic counterparts includes Hutchinson, he said Monday.
The governor was asked about the calls after The New York Times reported on the informal group over the weekend in an article that highlighted some Republicans’ frustrations with Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
“I have a fairly regular call with other Republican governors to talk about what’s happening in their state. I do participate in that,” the governor said.
When asked what he felt was the benefit of the conference calls, Hutchinson said he and the other governors discussed ways in which they have utilized federal money at the state level. He said the calls were not a factor in ordering a mask mandate, which followed similar mandates issued by GOP governors in Alabama and Texas.
“You get ideas that you
might not have thought of otherwise,” Hutchinson said. “Now that we’re going back to school, that was a big topic of conversation in the last [call] where you’re hearing how other governors are handling that, what the issues are that they’re facing, and that’s a great benefit as well.”
UTILITY ASSISTANCE
Arkansas will utilize $8.2 million in federal funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to pay for expanded subsidies to families struggling to pay their energy utility bills during the pandemic, Hutchinson said.
The Low-Income Energy Assistance Program will be relaunched by the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment starting July 27, Hutchinson said.
The new funding also will allow the maximum amount of household benefit to be tripled, from $500 to $1,500.
Arkansas Energy Office Director Mitchell Simpson said most of the money, nearly $7 million, will go toward utility bill subsidies.
“These programs will assist low-income Arkansans who have accumulated larger-than-normal past-due balances on their electric and natural gas bills, or who have depleted their supplies of winter fuels such as propane, natural gas or even wood,” Simpson said.
The rest of the money, about $1.2 million, will go toward a program that will pay for repairs to central cooling systems or to purchase window air-conditioning units in qualifying low-income households, Simpson said.
To apply for the program, Arkansans can contact their county’s Community Action Agency. A directory of those agencies can be found on the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality’s website.
“Whenever you’re in a public health crisis, asking people to take a step to protect one another, that’s what you have to do.” — Gov. Asa Hutchinson