COVID-19 update
As a service to our readers, The Sentinel-Record publishes updates released by the city of Hot Springs and the state of Arkansas.
The following stats were posted Wednesday on the Arkansas Department of Health website:
• 140,705 cumulative confirmed cases, up 1,507 from Tuesday.
• 1,208 rolling seven-day average of new confirmed cases, up 12 from Tuesday.
• 8.3% cumulative PCR infection rate, up from
8.2% Tuesday.
• 20,816 cumulative probable cases, up 705 from Tuesday.
• 17.4% cumulative antigen infection rate, up from 17.2% Tuesday.
• 16,378 active confirmed and probable cases, up 284 from Tuesday.
• 142,600 recoveries of confirmed and probable cases, up 1,918 from Tuesday.
• 1,088 hospitalizations, up 14 from Tuesday.
• 186 cases on a ventilator, down nine from Tuesday.
• 2,312 confirmed deaths, up eight from Tuesday.
• 210 probable deaths, up two from Tuesday.
• 1,064 nursing home deaths up three from Tuesday.
• 3,614 cumulative confirmed cases in Garland
County, up 29 from Tuesday.
• 35.14 rolling seven-day average of new confirmed cases, down three from Tuesday.
• 54,108 PCR and antigen test reports, up 335 from Tuesday.
• 38,437 private lab reports, up 243 from Tuesday.
• 15,671 public lab reports, up 92 from Tuesday.
• 7.0% cumulative PCR infection rate, no change from Tuesday.
• 334 active confirmed cases in Garland County, down 12 from Tuesday.
• 3,181 recoveries of confirmed cases in Garland County, up 41 from Tuesday
• 335 cumulative probable cases in Garland County, up 10 from Tuesday.
• 73 active probable cases in Garland County, down four from Tuesday.
• 99 confirmed deaths, no change from Tuesday.
• Six probable deaths, no change from Tuesday. The state’s infection curve rose Wednesday but stayed below the Nov. 26 peak for the sixth day in a row. The 1,507 new confirmed cases reported Wednesday exceeded new infections reported the previous Wednesday by 6%.
“I expected the return to higher case numbers today, and all indications are that the number will
continue to be high through the week,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday in a news release. “With COVID-19 virus in every area of the state and nation, we need to double our efforts to follow public health guidelines.”
The cumulative polymerase chain reaction infection rate rose one-tenth of a point Wednesday, reaching its highest level since late September. Garland County’s cumulative PCR infection rate reached 7% Tuesday, its highest level since August.
Hospitalizations peaked for the fourth day in a row Wednesday, reaching 1,088.
The educational institution report the Health Department updated Wednesday listed four Garland County school districts with five or more active confirmed and probable student and staff cases. Thirty active cases were reported at Lake Hamilton, up from the 23 reported Monday.
The 18 active cases reported at Lakeside were down from the 24 reported Monday. The district’s website reported 10 active cases Wednesday and 113 students and 15 staff members in quarantine.
The 14 active cases reported at the Hot Springs School District were up from the five reported Monday. The district’s website reported five active student cases and nine active staff cases. Six cases were reported in the Jessieville School District, which wasn’t listed on Monday’s report.
Wednesday’s report listed 2,107 active student and staff cases in all of the state’s school districts, up from the 1,777 reported Monday.
Thirteen active cases were reported at National Park College, up from the eight reported Monday. Eight and six cases were reported at Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist universities. Seven and five cases were reported there Monday.
Hutchinson will update the press today at 3 p.m. on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new quarantine guidelines. Revised guidelines the agency announced Wednesday shorten quarantine times for those who’ve been exposed to the virus from 14 days to 10 or seven days, depending on a person’s symptoms.
People who don’t develop symptoms should quarantine for 10 days, the CDC said. It recommended a seven-day quarantine for those who test negative. The revised guidelines are in response to economic hardships caused by quarantines, the CDC said.