Covid-19 cases continue to increase
Benton County reportedly has a total of 20,307 confirmed covid-19 cases as of Feb. 21, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
While this marks an extremely small one-week increase over the 20,136 case total reported Feb. 14, last week’s winter weather event is believed to have depressed testing.
The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, a Little Rock-based health policy center that has been reporting covid-19 case numbers by the city since last August, reported that it would not be publishing individual community numbers and trend tables this week because testing was reduced by recent winter storms.
Across the state line, the McDonald County Health Department reported 2,437 total cases as of Feb. 20, with two new that day. The county reported 31 total covid-19 deaths and 2,392 patients released.
Nationwide, the CDC reports 27,882,557 total cases with 496,112 deaths as of Feb. 21.
On the vaccination front, the ADH reports that 752,525 vaccine doses have been received or allocated in the state and 515,183 doses have been given.
The vaccination plan remains in phase 1-B, focused on vaccinating people over the age of 70, as well as teachers, school staff, childcare and higher education workers, according to the ADH.
The previous phase, 1-A, focused on healthcare workers, long-term care residents, EMS and first responders, including police and firefighters.
Information can be found on the department’s website at www.healthy. arkansas.gov.
The next phase, 1-C, will reportedly focus on people over the age of 65 and those between 16-64 years of age with high-risk medical conditions, as well as workers in transportation and logistics, water and wastewater, food service, housing, IT and communications, media, public safety, public health and energy.
City buildings reopened Monday, Feb. 1.
A mask mandate issued remains in effect.
The mandate requires individuals to wear masks in indoor and outdoor settings where individuals are likely to come within 6 feet of non-household members or potentially face a fine of $100 to $500.