COVID-19 update

EDITOR’S NOTE: As a service to our readers, The Sentinel-Record will publish updates released each weekday by the city of Hot Springs and the state of Arkansas.

The following stats were shared Tuesday at Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s daily COVID-19 news conference in Little Rock and posted on the Arkansas Department of Health’s website:

• 3,111 confirmed cases statewide, up 94 from Monday (Monday’s results included 20 cases from the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction).

• 40,629 test results, up 172 from Monday.

• 7.7% infection rate, up from

7.5% Monday.

• 1,146 recoveries, up 159 from Monday.

• 52 deaths, up two from Monday.

• 104 cases requiring hospitalization, down five from Monday.

• 208 nursing home residents infected, up five from Monday.

• 20 cases on a ventilator, down five from Monday.

• 114 cases in Garland County, up two from Monday.

• 1,942 test results from Garland County, up two from Monday.

• 5.9% rate of infection, up from

5.8% Monday.

CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs and National Park Medical Center representatives told the task force coordinating the local coronavirus response Monday that they’re making plans to safely resume some elective and non-urgent surgical procedures, according to the city’s summary of the weekly meeting.

The statewide suspension of those procedures was lifted Monday.

“The planning processes are underway in both area hospitals, and they are taking every precaution to ensure the safety of patients, co-workers and physicians,” the summary said. “Some elective procedures will be scheduled very shortly.”

Hutchinson reported 159 recoveries over the previous 24 hours, pushing the number of active cases down for the first time since April 18. Active cases rose from 998 April 18 to 1,980 Monday. They fell by 67 Tuesday to 1,913.

“You can see our actual cases are going down, which we’re very grateful for,” he said, noting that

2% of the state’s roughly 3 million people will have been tested by next month.

The active case number discounts deaths caused by COVID-19 and recoveries, a status the Health Department defines as seven days from the onset of symptoms and at least three days free of fever. The status attaches to asymptomatic patients who are seven days past diagnosis.

The jump in active cases coincided with the outbreak in the Cummins

Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction. Dr. Nate Smith, Health Department secretary, reported Tuesday that 860 inmates in the Lincoln County prison have tested positive.

Hutchinson said the prison outbreak and infection clusters in other congregate living settings should be viewed separately from community infections as the state moves closer to its May 4 target date for a phased reopening of the economy. Excluding numbers from the Cummins Unit and Sunday’s 111 new cases, which weren’t broken down by community and correctional facilities, an average of 60 new cases a day was reported over the previous week.

An average of 67 new cases a day was reported during the week prior to April 11, one of the first days infections from the Cummins Unit made up a significant percentage of new cases per day.

Smith said hospitalizations are also a key metric as the target date nears. The 104 hospitalizations reported Tuesday marked the first decline since April 21, when the number fell from 93 to 86. Hutchinson said last week that projections early in the outbreak from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicted the state would need 2,000 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients by the end of April.

The research center’s most current projection predicted a peak of 126 beds will be needed May 6.

“Although we have some variation from day to day, we have seen a plateauing off,” Smith said. “Hopefully we’ll see a decline begin sometime soon. We’re also looking at deaths. We still have a relatively few number of new deaths per day. We have one of the lowest deaths per population for COVID-19, so these are all signs of positive trends.”