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 Thursday on the Arkansas Department of Health website:

• 154,073 cumulative confirmed cases, up 1,704 from Wednesday.

• 1,621.58 rolling seven-day average of new confirmed cases, down 44.71 from Wednesday.

• 1,812,998 PCR test reports, up 12,964 from Wednesday.

• 8.5% cumulative PCR infection rate, no change from Wednesday.

• 24,781 cumulative probable cases, up 498 from Wednesday.

• 17.8% cumulative antigen infection rate, up from 17.6% Wednesday.

• 19,723 active confirmed and probable cases, up 958 from Wednesday.

• 156,286 recoveries of confirmed and probable cases, up 1,209 from Wednesday.

• 1,005 hospitalizations, down 59 from Wednesday.

• 181 cases on a ventilator, up two from Wednesday.

• 2,559 confirmed deaths, up seven from Wednesday.

• 261 probable deaths, up 27 from Wednesday.

• 1,204 nursing home deaths, up 21 from Wednesday.

• 4,005 cumulative confirmed cases in Garland

County, up 36 from Wednesday.

• 51.57 rolling seven-day average of new confirmed cases, up 0.86 from Wednesday.

• 57,427 PCR and antigen test reports, up 424 from Wednesday.

• 40,646 private lab reports, up 272 from Wednesday.

• 16,781 public lab reports, up

152 from Wednesday.

• 7.4% cumulative PCR infection rate, up from 7.3% Wednesday.

• 449 active confirmed cases in Garland County, up 29 from Wednesday.

• 3,442 recoveries of confirmed cases in Garland County, up 30 from Wednesday.

• 422 cumulative probable cases in Garland County, up two from Wednesday.

• 91 active probable cases in Garland County, down four from Wednesday.

• 114 confirmed deaths, no change from Wednesday.

• 10 probable deaths, up four from Wednesday.

The city of Hot Springs announced Thursday that staff exposure to COVID-19 has closed its engineering department until further notice. Staff is working from home while their City Hall office is closed.

The exposure required Deputy City Manager Kevin Brownlee to represent the engineering department at Tuesday’s Hot Springs Board of Directors agenda meeting. The department has several action items on the agenda of next week’s business meeting, the final one the board will convene this year.

An outbreak in the utility billing services office led to a temporary closure of that office earlier this year. Thursday’s announcement came as Garland County’s infection curve peaked for the second day in a row. The 36 new confirmed cases reported in the county raised the rolling seven-day average of new confirmed cases to 51.57. The 99 and 84 confirmed cases reported Tuesday and Wednesday have driven the 68% increase in the moving average since Monday.

Active confirmed cases reported in the county peaked for the second day in a row Thursday, rising 40% since the previous Thursday.

Nursing homes fueled the infection curve’s mid-November spike, but it doesn’t appear they have contributed to the current wave. More than 100 active resident and staff cases were reported last month at The Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Lake Hamilton Health and Rehab. Neither facility was listed in the report of nursing homes with new or additional cases in the last 14 days the Health Department updated Wednesday.

The state’s infection curve fell Thursday for the first time since Dec. 1, ending six-straight days of the rolling seven- day average of new confirmed cases reaching a new peak. Thursday’s 1,621.58 moving average was 3% lower than Wednesday’s peak, as the 2,017 new confirmed cases reported the previous Thursday were replaced in the rolling average by the 1,704 new cases reported Thursday.

Hospitalizations reached their lowest point in two weeks Thursday, falling 8% from the Dec. 2 peak.

“Yesterday saw a very strong day of testing, with over 18,000 total tests administered,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Thursday in a news release. “A decrease in hospitalizations is a good sign, but this has not been the trend. Continue to wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance as you are out and about.”

Active confirmed and probable cases peaked for the second day in a row Thursday, rising 5% since Wednesday.