Governor sets 2% testing goal
Virus cases still rising at lockup
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday announced a goal for 60,000 Arkansans — or about 2% of the state’s population — to be tested for the coronavirus this month.
He said the federal government had promised to provide the state with supplies over the same period that could be used to test 90,000.
“This is a great boost for us to have that commitment
for the supply chain not just this month, but next month and on,” Hutchinson said.
At the governor’s daily news conference on the pandemic, officials also announced the death of a sixth inmate at the Cummins Unit in Lincoln County, where 876 inmates have tested positive.
The state’s death toll from the virus rose by four, to 87, as of Wednesday evening, while the number of cases in the state’s official tally increased by 86, to 3,611.
That total does not yet include all of the results from an outbreak at the federal prison complex in Forrest City.
State Department of Health Secretary Nate Smith said the number of inmates who had tested positive there as of Wednesday afternoon had increased by 37, to 301.
That followed an increase the day before of 94 cases among inmates after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began testing more inmates at the prison.
The complex has low- and medium-security facilities with a total of about 3,000 inmates.
Most of those new test results had not yet been entered into a state database as of Wednesday and so weren’t reflected in Arkansas’ official count of the state’s cases.
The CDC this week also started testing more workers at the prison, where 14 workers tested positive earlier, Smith said.
“We should be getting results from those in the next few days,” Smith said. “Obviously, the workers go back and forth between the correctional institute and the community, and so whenever we have a positive test in a worker, we’ll have contact tracing to do in the community as well, so we will be increasing the testing in the community.”
He said the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences had conducted tests of Forrest City residents about three times, “and each time, they’ve detected more cases, so we’re concerned.”
No new cases were reported at the Cummins Unit.
Hutchinson also noted during the news conference that an executive order he signed this week directed that the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission waive the annual well fees for this year and the production assessment fee for six months for oil companies in the state.
“With the price of oil dropping dramatically, it’s impacted our independent producers in south Arkansas where it’s not even cost-effective for them to continue producing out of the wells with the price being so low,” the Republican governor said.
He said the commission will also explore other relief that may be needed for oil companies.
STATE’S TESTING LAGS
The goal of 60,000 tests in May was in line with statements by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials that the federal government would ensure that states can test 2% of their populations each month as many of them, including Arkansas, begin lifting restrictions that were imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
It would represent a more than doubling of the nearly 60,000 tests that have been completed on Arkansans since the first samples were collected in the state in January.
At his news conference Wednesday, Hutchinson said Arkansas compared favorably with other states in the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference, plus Oklahoma, when looking at the number of cases and hospitalizations in relation to the populations of each state.
In terms of tests performed per 100,000 residents, however, Arkansas ranked eighth among the 12 states.
“Arkansas is not in the forefront of our testing, that’s to be acknowledged,” he said.
He said the first shipment of collection kits, consisting of nasal swabs needed to collect samples and material needed to transport the specimens to laboratories, is expected to arrive from the CDC this week, with more arriving each week after that throughout the month.
The kits will be distributed to hospitals and clinics around the state that need them, Smith said.
The Arkansas Hospital Association last month cited a shortage of such kits at some hospitals as an obstacle after Hutchinson announced a campaign for a two-day “surge” to increase the number of tests performed each day from about 1,000 to 1,500.
Smith said the Health Department, which focuses much of its testing on outbreaks at prisons and nursing homes, has also had to cope at times with a “pretty limited inventory.”
“We’ve gone to desperate measures, including taking the swabs out of our gonorrhea/chlamydia testing kits” to use them for covid-19 tests, he said.
The supplies from the CDC “will be a big help,” he said.
“If our goal is 60,000 tests and we have 90,000, we’re going to have plenty of collection kits for everyone who needs them,” he said.
According to data from the Covid Tracking project, which collects information from state health departments, an average of 1,400 tests per day of Arkansans were completed in April.
As of Wednesday afternoon, an average of 1,770 had been completed each day this month.
Most of the tests are done by commercial laboratories outside the state.
DENTAL VISITS
Smith also announced Wednesday that the Health Department will begin allowing certain non-urgent dental procedures to resume Monday, a week earlier than it had initially planned.
The decision followed an advisory group meeting Tuesday in which the Arkansas State Dental Association had pushed for the earlier start date.
Members of the Arkansas Dental Hygienists’ Association supported keeping the date at May 18, saying they wanted to make sure that dentist offices had adequate safety protocols in place and supplies of protective equipment.
“Not every dental office will be ready, but those that are wanted to have the ability to start seeing patients,” Smith said.
He said the Health Department will work with the state Board of Dental Examiners to conduct unannounced visits to dentists’ offices to make sure the proper precautions are being taken.
Jennifer Stane, president of the hygienists association, said the decision is “not exactly what we’re advocating for,” but she hopes that the Health Department and dental board will help keep dentists in compliance.
If dentists “don’t have the right [personal protective equipment], then they shouldn’t be opening up to practice,” she said.
UAMS CUTS DISCUSSED
The worsening financial situation at UAMS prompted John Goodson, chairman of the University of Arkansas System board of trustees, to warn the board that they “may have to revisit” a proposal to cut the pay of senior leadership by 20%.
Earlier this week, UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson told trustees that the senior leadership had volunteered to take the pay cut, but two board members said they would oppose such a move if it went before the board.
After speaking with Patterson on Wednesday morning, however, Goodson told trustees during a special meeting on another matter that they need to reconsider the proposal.
“The situation at UAMS keeps worsening,” he said.
Patterson again assured trustees that hospital leadership is doing everything possible to avoid layoffs and “ensuring that we have the resources to not worry about making payroll.”
“We understand and think it’s admirable that the board is trying to protect those” who have given so much to UAMS, System President Donald Bobbitt told trustees.
But he said the situation is such that “it needs to be dealt with in a more aggressive manner.”
Earlier this week, system trustees learned that UAMS was losing $1 million per day because of limited services and fewer visits. They heard that UAMS had extended a hiring freeze through May, adjusted some employees’ hours worked and asked for voluntary reductions from others, while avoiding furloughs and pay cuts for rankand-file workers.
The hospital is still waiting to hear if it will receive help from the $1.2 billion in federal coronavirus relief money that was awarded to Arkansas under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
In the meantime, hospital officials will need to go before trustees in two weeks with a proposal to adjust to the reduction in revenue. The May meeting is also when trustees set budgets for the ensuing academic year.
LATEST DEATHS
In addition to that of the Cummins inmate, the state’s most recent virus deaths included a second resident at Brookstone Assisted Living in Fayetteville, according to a Health Department report.
That raised the number of coronavirus deaths among residents of nursing homes or assisted living facilities in the state to 33.
A map on a state website, which listed the state’s death toll at 87, did not list an increase in the deaths in Washington County, however. The map listed a total of three deaths in that county, a number that hasn’t changed in several days.
The map did indicate that the first deaths were reported in Garland and Union counties, and that the death toll in Pulaski County increased by one, to 22.
The number of patients hospitalized in the state as of Wednesday afternoon fell by 20, to 69. That reflected 29 patients who were discharged or died, and nine who were admitted, Health Department spokesman Meg Mirivel said.
Fourteen of the patients were on ventilators, down from 16 on Tuesday.
The 72 cases that were added to the statewide total included 20 inmates whose positive test results were entered into the state database, Smith said.
The 52 new non-inmate cases is a jump from the 34 such cases reported Tuesday and 13 on Monday.
Generally such cases have been down after a high of 81 new cases reported April 29.
Including residents who have died, the number of nursing home or assisted living facility residents who have tested positive increased by four, to 297, while the number of cases among workers at the facilities rose by one, to 149.
Statewide, the number of active cases — meaning the person tested positive and has not yet recovered — increased by 51, to 1,401.