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.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson held a press briefing Thursday at the state Capitol. The following stats were posted Thursday on the Arkansas Department of Health website:
• 142,722 cumulative confirmed cases, up 2,017 from Wednesday.
• 1,254.29 rolling seven-day average of new confirmed cases, up 46.20 from Wednesday.
• 8.3% cumulative PCR infection rate, no change from Wednesday.
• 21,588 cumulative probable cases, up 772 from Wednesday.
• 17.6% cumulative antigen infection rate, up from 17.4% Wednesday.
• 17,109 active confirmed and probable cases, up 731 from Wednesday.
• 144,624 recoveries of confirmed and probable cases, up 2,024 from Wednesday.
• 1,072 hospitalizations, down 16 from Wednesday.
• 190 cases on a ventilator, up four from Wednesday.
• 2,343 confirmed deaths, up 31 from Wednesday.
• 212 probable deaths, up two from Wednesday.
• 1,078 nursing home deaths, up 14 from Wednesday.
• 3,644 cumulative confirmed cases in Garland County, up 30 from Wednesday.
• 27.57 rolling seven-day average of new confirmed cases, down 7.57 from Wednesday.
• 54,682 PCR and antigen test reports, up 574 from Wednesday.
• 38,746 private lab reports, up 309 from Wednesday.
• 15,936 public lab reports, up 265 from Wednesday.
• 7.0% cumulative PCR infection rate, no change from Wednesday.
• 321 active confirmed cases in Garland County, down 13 from Wednesday.
• 3,224 recoveries of confirmed cases in Garland County, up 43 from Wednesday.
• 361 cumulative probable cases, up 26 from Wednesday.
• 91 active probable cases in Garland County, up 18 from Wednesday.
• 99 confirmed deaths, no change from
Wednesday.
• Six probable deaths, no change from Wednesday.
Hutchinson said the state will adopt the relaxed quarantine guidance the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued Wednesday. He’s hopeful shorter quarantine times will improve compliance with Health Department directives, encourage more candor in the contact tracing process and ease the strain on staffing the longer isolation periods have on school districts.
People who have been exposed to the virus and develop no symptoms are required to quarantine for 10 days instead of the 14 previously required. The time can be shortened to seven days from exposure for those who test negative for the virus.
“It is their hope that this will encourage compliance, that more people will accept quarantine requirements and identify those who’ve been exposed,” Hutchinson said of the CDC’s rationale for the revised guidance. “… Whenever you do the contact tracing, somebody who is positive might be hesitant to identify someone else because it’s going to mean 14 days of quarantine. The hope would be that whenever we take these steps that it will increase compliance and understanding of the critical importance of those first seven to 10 days in particular.”
Education Secretary Johnny Key said the shorter time frame gives schools more staffing flexibility.
“When you look at our data and the reasons that schools have had to pivot to virtual learning, it has primarily been because of the number of quarantined individuals,” he said. “It’s because of the number of quarantines, and then the lack of sufficient substitutes.”
The announcement came as the state set records for new cases, with the 2,017 new confirmed cases and 2,789 new total cases reported Thursday both eclipsing previous highs. The new cases raised the infection curve 4%, but the rolling seven-day average of new confirmed cases remained below the Nov. 26 peak for a seventh-straight day.
Hospitalization fell Thursday for the first time in five days, but Hutchinson said he expected the
numbers to rise.
“That is helpful news, but we also know with the increase in cases that that could be a temporary reprieve,” he said. “We want to be prepared if our hospitalizations go up again.”
Hutchinson warned of trying times ahead, predicting a difficult December and a Christmas that will have to be celebrated differently than previous years.
“It’s not a time for fear, but it’s time for action and a time for resolve,” he said, explaining that the majority of new cases are being contracted at social gatherings and not restaurants and bars. “And I’m resolved we can get through this well.”
Garland was one of 32 counties where 20 or more new cases were reported Thursday. The 30 new confirmed cases replaced the 83 reported the previous Thursday in the county’s moving seven-day average, lowering the county’s infection curve to its lowest point in more than three weeks.
Thursday’s 27.57 average was 42% lower than the peak reached Nov. 14 and 17 and 8% lower than the July 31 summer peak.