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 Tuesday on the Arkansas Department of Health website:
• 182,627 cumulative confirmed cases, up 1,449 from Monday.
• 2,024,496 PCR test reports, up 7,350 from Monday.
• 9% cumulative PCR infection rate, no change from Monday.
• 36,619 cumulative probable cases, up 1,269 from Monday.
• 18.8% cumulative antigen infection rate, up
0.1% since Monday.
• 21,181 active confirmed and probable cases, up 350 from Monday.
• 194,436 recoveries of confirmed and probable cases, up 2,302 from Monday.
• 1,161 hospitalizations, up six from Monday.
• 198 cases on a ventilator, down three from Monday.
• 3,042 confirmed deaths, up 37 from Monday.
• 561 probable deaths, up 29 from Monday.
• 1,487 nursing home deaths, up 13 from Monday.
• 4,861 cumulative confirmed cases in Garland County, up 101 from Monday.
• 65,864 PCR and antigen test reports, up 601 from Monday.
• 46,729 private lab reports, up 475 from Monday.
• 18,987 public lab reports, up 127 from Monday.
• 9% cumulative PCR infection rate, no change from Monday.
• 486 active confirmed cases in Garland County, up 59 from Monday.
• 4,247 recoveries of confirmed cases in Garland County, up 40 from Monday.
• 757 cumulative probable cases in Garland County, up 51 from Monday.
• 177 active probable cases in Garland County, up 28 from Monday.
• 126 confirmed deaths, up two from Monday.
• 23 probable deaths, up three from Monday. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday extended his coronavirus emergency declaration by another two months as the state reported a record one-day spike in deaths and a new high in hospitalizations from COVID-19, The Associated Press reported.
Hutchinson has used his emergency powers to impose restrictions, including a statewide mask mandate, to combat the pandemic. The emergency declaration was first issued in March and was set to expire at the end of the month, the AP reported.
“I am very concerned about where we could be going, ” Dr. Jose Romero, the state’s health secretary, said at Tuesday’s press briefing, according to the AP. Romero urged Arkansans to avoid large crowds or gatherings to celebrate New Year’s Eve this week.
Five percent of the state’s 1,155 intensive care unit beds and 21% of the state’s 8,940 hospital beds are available. There are 385 COVID-19 patients in ICUs around the state, according to the Department of Health, the AP said.
At the virtual meeting of the Hot Springs/ Garland County COVID-19 Task Force on Monday, representatives from CHI St. Vincent and National Park Medical Center “shared their anxiousness about a likely increase in cases in the weeks following the Christmas holiday,” the task force said in a news release.
The task force meetings are not open to the public.
The hospital representatives said their facilities “continue to experience high numbers of
COVID-19 patients, reaching the highest numbers so far during the pandemic this past week, Dec.
20-27,” the release said.
“One of the hospitals” — the facility was not identified in the release — reported that “nearly 50% of the current COVID patients require treatment in the intensive care unit. The other hospital said that some COVID patients are hav
ing to be held in the emergency department while waiting for bed placement.”
CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs altered its visitation guidelines last week, according to the release.
For patients who qualify for visitors, one visitor is allowed daily from 1 to 6 p.m. National Park Medical Center visitation remains at one visitor per qualified patient between 5:30 to 8 p.m., and visitors should enter through the emergency department.
Garland County Health Officer Dr. Gene Shelby said in the release that, despite a shortened workweek and a slowdown in testing availability from the
Christmas Eve and Christmas holidays, documented active cases in Garland County continued to climb last week to an all-time high of 608 at the time of the meeting, up from the previous week’s total of 572. The number of tests recorded was down from the previous week’s 3,337 at 3,025, and the positivity rate rose slightly from 13.2% to 13.5%.
Distribution across the county shows that Hot Springs Village continued to reach record levels for a second-straight week, rising from 35 to 41 active cases; Royal also reached an all-time high of 36 cases, up from 23; Pearcy is up from 20 to 24; Jessieville is up from 18 to 20; and Lonsdale dropped from 13 to 11, the release said.