COVID-19 update
EDITOR’S NOTE: As a service to our readers, The Sentinel-Record will publish daily updates released each weekday by the city of Hot Springs and the state of Arkansas.
The following stats were shared Wednesday at Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s daily COVID-19 news conference in Little Rock and posted on the Arkansas Department of Health’s website:
• 4,236 confirmed cases statewide, up 72 from Tuesday.
• 75,818 test results, up 2,603 from Tuesday.
• 5.6% infection rate, down from 5.7% Tuesday.
• 862 active cases, up 13 from Tuesday.
• 3,277 recoveries, up 57 from Tuesday.
• 97 deaths, up two from Tuesday.
• 64 cases requiring hospitalization, up five from Tuesday.
• 316 nursing home residents infected, up 17 from Tuesday.
• 13 cases on a ventilator, up one from Tuesday.
• 121 cases in Garland County, up one from Tuesday.
• 3,125 test results for Garland County, up 92 from Tuesday
• 3.9% infection rate, down from 4% Tuesday.
• 115 recoveries in Garland County, up one from Tuesday.
• Five active cases in Garland
County, no change from Tuesday.
• One death in Garland County, no change from Tuesday.
The Arkansas Department of Commerce said Wednesday that
486 businesses in Garland County applied for Ready for Business grants. The agency said applications are still being reviewed and none had yet to be approved. The program provides grants of up to $100,000 to businesses for expenses related to keeping employees and customers safe from the coronavirus.
Commerce Department Secretary Mike Preston said earlier this week that more than 12,000 businesses statewide applied for the $147 million provided from the state’s $1.25 billion in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding Congress approved in March. Preston said businesses with 50 or fewer employees made up more than 90% of the applicants.
The Health Department reported 72 new cases Wednesday, keeping the seven-day rolling average at 100.6 for a second-straight day. The moving seven day average for community cases, or those outside of a correctional setting, increased for a third straight day Wednesday, rising to 60.7.
Dr. Nate Smith, Health Department secretary, attributed the 25% increase since Sunday to testing done over the weekend in Forrest City. The St. Francis County municipality is home to the federal prison where 335 inmates and 17 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Twenty-seven of the 100 community cases reported Tuesday came from St. Francis County.
“It’s very difficult to model mathematically,” Smith said of the state’s epidemiological curve. “It’s sort of been ups and downs. We had a low of 28 and a high of 121 this week. We had a large increase (Tuesday) which reflected a lot of testing that happened over the weekend in Forrest City. It’s hard to know from day to day where our trajectory is going, but we’ll look at it each week.”
Smith said the three-day increase isn’t a consequence of restrictions being loosened during the initial phase of business reopenings that began earlier this month. Gyms and fitness centers were allowed to open May 4, salons and barbers May 6 and dine-in restaurant service Monday.
The more than 23,000 tests
during the first two weeks of May account for about a third of the total tests since the virus first surfaced in Arkansas March 11. The state has set a goal of 60,000 tests this month, a number it hopes will provide a clearer picture of where the virus is spreading.
“Testing is our radar system,” Hutchinson said. “It gives us an early warning capability for where an uptick will be and where there’s increased potential of an outbreak. We have to learn to manage and work through the potential of COVID-19 being here for the next year, or until we get a vaccine. To accomplish that testing is a critical part of that infrastructure.”
One new case was reported Wednesday in Garland County, making the first time a new case was reported on consecutive days since April 30. The rate of positive tests as a percent of total tests fell from 4% to 3.9%, but the rolling seven-day average of new cases rose from 0.43 to 0.57. It has not been above one since April 21.
A demographic breakdown of the state’s more than 4,000 total cases Smith provided showed African Americans accounted for 38.8% of the state’s more than 4,000 reported cases and 38.9% of the 97 COVID-19 related deaths. The group makes up more than 15% of the state’s population.
Smith said African Americans are over represented in the infection numbers but not deaths.
“We don’t have a disparity in terms of death,” he said. “Our African American Arkansans are not more likely to die if they get infected.”