Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas’ virus cases soar by 969
Get serious, governor tells college students
With the state’s count of confirmed coronavirus cases rising by 969 on Thursday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson warned that the virus is on the verge of surging to a new level unless more Arkansans take precautions against its spread.
He and Health Secretary Jose Romero directed their remarks, in particular, to college students, who Romero said are driving the uptick in cases.
“We need all of our college-age kids to take this more seriously than the average college student takes a pandemic,” Hutchinson said. “We ask you to make sure you protect others over the course of the weekend so we can continue and to have the kind of school year we all expect.”
He said he agreed with an assessment by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, that the growth of cases in Arkansas and six other states could escalate unless residents take the appropriate precautions over the Labor Day weekend.
“There are several states that are at risk for surging, namely North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying in an interview this week.
“Those states are starting to see an increase in the percent positive of their testing. That is generally predictive that there’s going to be a problem.”
Also on Thursday, Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key said two more schools — Jacksonville Middle School and Earle Elementary School — are pivoting from on-site to virtual instruction because of concerns about the virus.
School officials said the changes were prompted by manpower shortages at both schools because of employ
ees in quarantine after contact with infected people.
Meanwhile, state Secretary of Corrections Solomon Graves announced that state prisons and community correction centers will begin reopening to visitors next month and that prisons will begin accepting inmates from county jails again starting next week.
The state’s death toll from the virus, as tracked by the state Department of Health, rose Thursday by 20, to 861.
A Health Department spokeswoman said one of the deaths occurred in June but wasn’t immediately reported to the Health Department.
Nine of the deaths were among nursing home residents, including eight at a home in Mississippi County, Romero said.
That raised the department’s death tally among nursing home residents to 293.
Health Department spokeswoman Danyelle McNeill said she didn’t have the name of the Mississippi County nursing home Thursday.
The number of patients hospitalized with covid-19 in the state fell by 10, to 425, while the number on ventilators increased by one, to 91.
The state’s cumulative count of cases confirmed through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests rose to 63,081.
Its tally of probable cases, which include infections confirmed solely through less-sensitive antigen tests, rose by 45, to 423.
CAUTION URGED
Among the state’s 75 counties, Hutchinson noted Thursday that the largest number of new confirmed cases, 211, were in Washington County, home to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
He said 81% of those cases were among residents age 18-24.
“I think it can safely be surmised that many of those new cases are college students,” the Republican governor said. “It’s just a signal that we have a lot of work to do here in Arkansas, that the virus is still out in our community in various ways, and we have to protect each other.”
Hutchinson urged college students to remain particularly vigilant over the three-day weekend.
Similarly, Romero said half of the 38 new confirmed cases among Jefferson County residents were people age 1824. Jefferson County is home to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
According to Health Department reports, the number of confirmed cases among university and college students and employees, rose by 187, to 743, between Monday and Thursday.
At least 561 of the cases as of Thursday were of students, up from 429 on Monday.
The number of cases among students and employees that were active rose by 137, to 327.
“We are seeing significant numbers of cases from those institutions,” Romero said. “They are the reflection of less than rigorous adherence to the recommendations that have been made over and over again, and I will repeat them, I’m sorry — using your face mask, social distancing, handwashing.”
While colleges have adopted mask requirements and other rules to prevent the spread of the virus, he said the infections seem to be spreading at off-campus parties and get-togethers.
A Health Department directive once prohibited gatherings of more than 10 people, but more recent rules allow events with up to 100 people without previous approval by the department.
Even if the department learned about an off-campus party, “we couldn’t shut it down,” Romero said.
Hutchinson said off-campus activity is the “biggest challenge” in preventing the spread of the virus among college students.
“We will need to have more conversations with university officials before any steps are taken to place additional restrictions on social gatherings,” he said in a statement Thursday.
The confirmed cases added to the state’s total Thursday also included 90 in Pulaski County, 47 in Benton County, 36 in Sebastian County, 33 in Saline County, 27 in Faulkner County and 25 in Craighead County.
The state’s count of confirmed cases among prison and jail inmates rose by 23. Such increases can reflect new cases as well as ones that were added to the state’s tally earlier but weren’t immediately classified as coming from a jail or prison.
Cases among jail and prison inmates also are sometimes not added to the state’s total until several days after a test is performed and information from laboratory reports is entered into a state database.
The remaining 946 confirmed cases added Thursday from the state’s non-incarcerated population was the second-highest, one-day increase since the start of the pandemic.
The number of confirmed cases in the state that were considered active increased by 321, to 5,331, as 628 Arkansans were newly classified as having recovered.
The number of Arkansans ever hospitalized with the virus increased by 45, to 4,386, while the number who have ever been on ventilators rose by six, to 562.
ON CAMPUSES
Arkansas State University in Jonesboro on its website Thursday reported 112 active covid-19 cases, although a Health Department report listed it as having 26.
The department’s totals often are lower than numbers reported by universities on their websites, though not all schools keep a running tally of covid-19 cases.
ASU spokesman Bill Smith said the university hasn’t made changes to its operations, despite the rising infection rates.
The active case totals included 78 off-campus students and 30 living on campus, according to the university’s website.
Safety protocols continue, Smith said. Face coverings are a requirement in classrooms and other indoor common areas.
Asked if a specific group or event could be linked to the rise in cases, Smith replied in an email that “we do not have any one particular event or group other than simply the return to campus by a larger population of students.”
As part of its planning for the fall, the campus has set aside 110 spaces to isolate and quarantine students, Smith said.
In the statewide report, over half of the college cases listed were at UA-Fayetteville, which reported 153 active cases.
UA’s own count, last updated Wednesday, put the total at 399 active covid-19 cases. The campus concluded its third and final day of drive-thru testing Thursday.
Behind UA-Fayetteville, the state report listed UAPB as having 39 active cases, up from 18 reported Monday.
UAPB will partner with the state Department of Health on a drive-thru testing event Tuesday, said George Cotton Sr., the university’s vice chancellor for institutional advancement.
Cotton said Saturday that UAPB partnered with Jefferson Comprehensive Care System Inc. on a testing event, with about 275 students tested.
Covid-19 cases “seem pretty generally distributed across the campus,” Cotton said.
The University of the Ozarks in Clarksville and Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock on Thursday dropped off the Health Department’s list of higher-education institutions with at least five active cases, while Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock were added.
The number of active cases among students and employees grew by eight, to 13, at Arkansas State University-Newport; by one, to 12 at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia; and by two, to seven at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.
At the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, the number of active cases fell by three, to 10.
Williams Baptist College was listed as having 10 active cases, and UALR was listed as having six.
INCREASED PATROLS
Fayetteville announced Thursday that it was increasing the number of public safety officers in the city’s downtown entertainment district through the weekend “in response to growing concerns about the potential for COVID-19 community spread resulting from restaurant and bar patrons gathering in groups both indoors and outdoors.”
The four police officers who normally patrol Dickson Street and the downtown square at night will be joined by “two additional officers and personnel” from the fire marshal’s office, the city said in a news release.
The effort will focus on educating patrons and businesses about the regulations, particularly face coverings and social distancing, the release said.
The city said it has “received several complaints from residents that many of these patrons are not wearing face coverings nor maintaining appropriate distance from others.”
Mayor Lioneld Jordan said the effort will be especially aimed at increasing compliance among college students.
“Whether you live here full time, part time or are just visiting — each of us has a responsibility to help keep this community healthy by following simple guidelines to prevent COVID-19 spread,” Jordan said in the release.
CLASSES MOVE ONLINE
Jacksonville Middle School’s shift to virtual instruction today came in response to a lack of staff and substitute teachers, according to district leaders.
“We have eight teachers on quarantine now, with the potential to have three or four more due to family situations,” Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District Superintendent Bryan Duffie said.
He said the school has about 392 virtual students and 346 on-site students.
All of the students have been provided with Chromebook laptop computers that will enable them to complete their class assignments from their homes today and possibly into next week — although decisions about next week have not been finalized, he said.
“Fortunately, we have planned for this scenario and are ready to quickly make the transition,” district spokeswoman Cheesa Williams said.
The announcement follows the district’s report Wednesday that a Jacksonville High School student tested positive for covid-19, resulting in 16 students being sent home and into quarantine for the next 14 days.
Two additional positive covid cases among the staff have resulted in the quarantine of three food service employees and six transportation department employees.
Tish Knowles, superintendent of the Earle School District, said the 228-pupil Earle Elementary dismissed early Thursday. Each child is equipped with computer devices and log-in information so they can begin virtual instruction today.
The change came after the discovery of two cases of covid-19 among adults and students affiliated with the school, resulting in more than half of the staff being quarantined, Knowles said.
“We’ve been able to pivot very quickly,” she said about moving to online instruction. “We are cleaning and disinfecting. The staff who are not listed as close, probable contacts [to those with covid] will be onsite in their classrooms today [Friday] delivering the virtual learning.”
The time period for relying solely on virtual education is yet to be determined, she said. The return to on-site instruction could be phased in, possibly by grade level, but those decisions have not been made.
“We’re going to adjust, and we’re going to jump back. We’ll be fine,” Knowles said.
The Little Rock School District on Thursday reported one new positive covid-19 case — a staff member at Romine Elementary — and six newly quarantined students and staff members in a 24-hour period between 3 p.m. Wednesday and 3 p.m. Thursday.
Additionally, two newly quarantined staff members are at Romine and Southwest schools. The newly quarantined students are from Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., and two from David O. Dodd schools.
Among public elementary and secondary schools statewide, the cumulative number of cases among students and employee increased by 141, to 1,991, between Monday and Thursday, according to Health Department reports.
The total as of Thursday included at least 1,473 students and 495 employees.
The number of cases among both groups that were active fell by 28, to 412.
The Springdale School District continued to top the list of districts with at least five active cases.
It had a total of 53 cases among students and six among employees. Nineteen of the infections were considered active as of Thursday.
At private schools, the number of infections among students and staff members rose by four, to 110. Fourteen of those infections were active as of Thursday, down from 20 on Monday.
VISITATIONS TO RESUME
The Department of Corrections halted inmate visits in March, as the first cases of the virus appeared in the state. It was one of the first steps taken to try to keep the virus out of the state’s crowded prisons, though more than a dozen prisons have since had outbreaks.
The state’s prison system continued to accept new transfers of male prisoners at its main intake facility, the Ouachita River Unit in Malvern, until June, when an outbreak began at that facility that later spread to 1,297 prisoners.
Active cases at the unit had fallen to 19 by Wednesday, according to the Health Department, though the most recent case was discovered Tuesday.
“Given their sustained success in the recovery of the positive inmates we have there, we are at a point where we can move forward with intake,” Graves said.
New prisoners taken to the Ouachita River Unit will be quarantined together for two weeks — and tested for the virus after seven days — before being transferred to other lockups if they test negative for the virus.
The main intake facility for female prisoners, the McPherson Unit in Newport, does not have any active cases and never stopped conducting intake, according to a department spokeswoman. Only 26 cases of the virus have been reported among prisoners and staff members there.
At least 5,480 state prisoners have tested positive for the virus, the highest rate of any state prison system in the nation, according to the Marshall Project. At least 39 have died, according to spokeswoman Cindy Murphy.
Graves said the decision to resume visitation will be based on case counts at individual units, as well as advice from the Health Department and Wellpath, the agency’s health care contractor.
While details governing the visits are still being worked out, Graves said the number of visitors will likely be reduced, and those allowed into the prisons will be screened for symptoms and required to wear masks during their visits. “High-risk” visitors may be excluded, he said.
As of Thursday, Graves said there were 432 active cases of the virus in the state prison system. The largest ongoing outbreaks were at the Varner Unit, with 190 active cases; the Wrightsville Unit, with 81 active cases; and the Benton Work Release Center, with 53 active cases.