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 Monday at Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s daily COVID-19 news conference in Little Rock and posted on the Arkansas Department of Health’s website:
• 3,458 confirmed cases statewide, up 27 from Sunday (Monday’s new cases included 14 from correctional facilities).
• 54,442 test results, up 1,552 from Sunday.
• 6.4% infection rate, down from 6.5% Sunday.
• 2,016 recoveries, up 29 from Saturday.
• 81 deaths, up five from Sunday.
• 91 cases requiring hospitalization, down seven from Sunday.
• 245 nursing home residents infected, up five from Sunday.
• 16 cases on a ventilator, down three from Sunday.
• 117 cases in Garland County, no change from Sunday.
• 2,345 test results for Garland County, up 38 from Sunday.
• 5.0% infection rate, no change from Sunday.
• 105 recoveries in Garland County, no change from Sunday.
The Health Department confirmed the first positive case in a Garland County nursing home Monday, listing a resident of The Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Carpenter Dam Road among the 245 nursing home residents who have tested positive statewide.
The Health Department said 45 nursing homes have at least one resident or staff member who have tested positive.
The long-term care facility joined the Adult and Teen Challenge of Arkansas as the county’s only congregate living areas where residents or staff have tested positive for COVID-19. Twenty-six staff and residents of the campus off Highway 7 north have tested positive, according to information provided by the Health Department.
No new cases were reported Monday in Garland County, bringing the rolling seven day average of new cases per day to 0.57. Active cases fell from 15 Friday to 12 Monday.
Active cases statewide climbed from 1,284 Friday to 1,362 Monday, but officials said the 27 new cases reported Monday were the lowest single-day increase in a month. The positive tests were reported from 1,069 performed over a 24hour period, Hutchinson said.
“That’s certainly very good news in terms of positivity rates,” he said.
Hutchinson said unlike other states that are easing restrictions, Arkansas has actually met presidential guidelines for beginning a phased reopening of the economy. Last week he said the state has satisfied the 14-day downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests listed in the Guidelines for Opening Up America Again. The state’s 6.4% infection rate was as high as 15% and 20% in March and April.
He said the state can move into the second phase if indicators such as hospitalizations and new cases remain stable over the next two weeks. Dr. Nate Smith, Health Department secretary, said an outbreak in one of the economic sectors, such as personal care services, where restrictions have been eased could slow a broader reopening of the state’s economy.
He said restrictions lifted for large indoor venues, such as movie theaters, bowling alleys, auditoriums and museums, effective May 18 were modest so as not to overwhelm the state’s contact tracing capabilities, which have been scaled up from three nurses to more than 180 who have been trained to conduct the investigations.
No more than 50 patrons can be inside when the updated limitations take effect later this month. He said separate guidelines will be announced later this week for casinos, but he expected them to also take effect May 18.
“The more people we have together, the greater chances that one or more of them will be infected with COVID-19 and potentially spread it,” he said. “If we do have a transmission at one of these events, 50 people is manageable for a contact tracing investigation. We can do that fairly quickly.
“If we start with thousands, and we had an outbreak that occurs in one of these venues that can be very difficult and time consuming to work up.”