The numbers game

This past week, many of us have looked back to last year when mankind started taking covid-19 seriously. Serious enough to shut down American sports. People remember where they were when the NCAA announced there’d be no March Madness in 2020.

There’s good news in the headlines today as case infections continue to decline. Here’s more from the papers:

“Almost a year after Arkansas’ first coronavirus case was identified, the spread of the virus in the state continued to show signs of slowing on Wednesday as the state count of cases rose by 317 . . . . Already at its lowest level since early July, the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 fell for the second day in a row. The state death toll from the virus rose by 25, to 5,382.”

No doubt 317 shows the state still has work to do. But we can remember days when the new infection total was above 3,000. Those are days we do not miss and are not eager to revisit, so keep wearing your masks and social distancing. Not enough people have the vaccine yet.

Speaking of vaccines, make sure you go get yours when an appointment comes open. That’s the long-term strategy for getting the infection rate down from 317 to 0. On the day we have zero new infections, that should be a frontpage story for the paper.

Still, with the arrival of spring-like weather and new cases declining, it’s hard not to feel like maybe, just maybe, the end of this nightmare is in sight.

If we all buckle down for a little while longer, Arkansas and the rest of the country will be able to return to normal. What a day that’ll be.