Testing pace in state falling short of goals
But Hutchinson optimistic as labs’ efforts pick up speed
Arkansas was on track to fall short of Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Department of Health’s testing goal for the second straight month, Hutchinson told reporters on Monday while expressing optimism that commercial lab numbers will pick up after their summer lag.
The governor set a “high” goal of 190,000 tests for the month of August after he said he received assurances from the White House that testing would ramp up after a slowdown in commercial lab tests resulted in the state falling about 5,000 tests short of its 200,000-test goal for July.
“In August, it’s going to get better,” the governor said he was told.
On Monday, the final day of the month, the Arkansas Department of Health had
received 181,950 test results, including 4,542 in the previous 24 hours.
The Health Department also reported 368 new cases of covid-19 on Monday.
“I’m encouraged by the fact that it appears the commercial testing labs are accelerating on their production, reducing their turnaround times,” Hutchinson said. “All of those are good indications.”
In addition to lab-confirmed tests, which the Health Department uses to track official case numbers, Hutchinson had set an August goal of processing 10,000 antigen tests, which are less reliable but produce quicker results.
On Monday, he said the Health Department had received 4,644 results from antigen tests, and health officials said there was still a delay in the delivery of thousands of antigen tests that they had hoped to deploy for the start of the school year.
The Department of Health, meanwhile, touted testing locations in Jonesboro, Fayetteville, Clarksville and Hot Springs this week. Three consecutive days of state Department of Health testing clinics for University of Arkansas, Fayetteville students are set to begin today in response to rising covid-19 case totals, with the university reporting 151 new cases identified from Friday through Sunday.
STATE NUMBERS
In addition to new cases Monday, the Health Department reported 29 new hospitalizations, increasing the total number of people hospitalized by the coronavirus to 420. The number of patients on ventilators increased by three, to 87.
Another 13 deaths were reported on Monday, including several delayed death reports from June and July, bringing the toll to 797.
State Health Secretary Jose Romero said 5,466 Arkansans are considered active patients. A total of 61,224 Arkansans have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic reached the state in March.
The Arkansas Department of Health on Monday reported a cumulative total of 1,198 covid-19 cases among public school students and staff members between June 15 and Monday.
There have been 72 cases among staff members and students in private schools and 367 cases in colleges and universities, according to the latest twice-weekly report on educational institutions.
The report lists data for each of the 30 public school districts and charter schools that have had five or more cases — totaling 659 — since June 15. Those districts and charter schools include the Fort Smith School District with 68 cases since June 15, the Little Rock district with 47 cases and the Springdale district with 44.
School districts with fewer than five cases are not singled out by name in an effort to protect patient identities, according to the state report. Those unnamed districts had a cumulative total of 539 covid-19 cases since June 15.
Among the colleges and universities, the state’s largest — the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville — has at least three times as many cumulative cases since June 15 as any other campus — 104 cases. Arkansas State University had the second-highest reported number, at 36. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock was not on the list, meaning it either has fewer than five cases or no cases.
The report is available for public viewing on the Arkansas Department of Health’s website: https://www.healthy.arkansas.gov/images/uploads/pdf/school_report_08312020.pdf
SCHOOL CLOSINGS
Two school districts announced over the weekend that they are switching their high schools to remote learning because of the number of staff members who are in quarantine and unable to go to work in person, said Education Secretary Johnny Key.
Those schools are Marshall High School in Searcy County and Cross County High School. Key said they will join KIPP Delta Public Schools in Helena-West Helena in moving to all-online instruction.
“We get reports on a regular basis throughout the weekend, but those are the two that when they looked at their staffing concerns saw there would be some great challenges if they opened up in person today,” Key said. “I would commend them because they looked very carefully to see if they could isolate where the problem was, and they did. In both cases, it was at the high school level.”
The Little Rock School District reported that two students and two employees tested positive for covid-19 in the 24 hours between 3 p.m. Sunday and 3 p.m. Monday. The affected staff members are at McDermott Elementary and Mabelvale Middle schools. The students are at Stephens Elementary and Southwest High School.
In addition to the four positive cases in the 24-hour period, 15 employees and students have been quarantined because of potential exposure to a positive case. Those newly quarantined include five students at Southwest High, six at Stephens, and one each at Central High and Bale Elementary.
The newly quarantined staff members were an employee in the district’s special education department and a staff member at Henderson Middle School.
The Little Rock School District is posting daily reports about covid-19 cases and quarantines by school on its website. In a time period that encompassed the first week of school — Aug. 21 through Friday — the district reported a total of seven positive cases and 69 people in quarantine.
A student at Jacksonville Middle School tested positive for covid-19 over the weekend, the Jacksonville/ North Pulaski School District said Monday in a news release. The case has resulted in four teachers and 23 students being quarantined for the next 14 days, under Arkansas Department of Health directives.
In addition, Romero said, the Health Department is investigating whether a school bus driver in Russellville died of covid-19 after the start of school last week.
DELAYED TESTS
Stephanie Williams, the chief of staff at the Health Department, said Monday that the state is still waiting to receive more than half of its July order of antigen tests after the federal government “commandeered” much of the shipment.
The state announced its order of 200 antigen test machines from Becton, Dickinson and Co. on July 27, along with enough kits to conduct 3,600 tests.
The Health Department plans to send those machines and testing kits to local public health units across the state, where they can be used to test students and faculty members from schools. As of Monday, the state had received all of the machines but only enough kits for 1,200 tests.
Those kits are delivered in batches that have been sent to 28 local public health units along with student health centers at the University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University, Williams said.
LAWMAKERS TO SUE
Hutchinson responded on Monday to the announcement by a group of lawmakers of their intent to sue Romero in an effort to end the governor’s emergency declaration and overturn his administration’s public health directives.
The lawsuit was announced in a news release by state Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, and a copy of a complaint sent to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was drafted by Travis Story, the former law partner of state Sen. Bob Ballinger, R-Berryville.
Sullivan later provided the newspaper with the names of 16 other lawmakers, all Republicans, who he said had signed on to be plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Sullivan’s news release said the group plans to hold a rally Thursday at the state Capitol after they file the lawsuit.
“If successful, the Covid-19 related directives issued by ADH will be deemed invalid, forcing the ADH to follow Arkansas law and present any future rules to legislative committees for their review and approval,” Sullivan’s news release said.
Hutchinson, a Republican and an attorney, said Monday that he disagreed “completely” with the group’s legal argument.
“The General Assembly has given [the] ability for public health guidelines by statute, the ability for the executive branch to manage during a pandemic,” Hutchinson said. “You cannot have public health guidelines delayed by three or four weeks as they might go through a legislative process.”
The governor has faced previous criticism from a similar group of his fellow party members over his decision to impose a statewide mask mandate in July.
TESTING URGED AT UA
University of Arkansas groups with members testing positive for covid-19 should “immediately suspend all in-person activities” and get tested even if they have no symptoms, a university spokesman said Monday.
Notifications went to members of those groups after a surge in covid-19 cases over the weekend. UA-Fayetteville identified 151 new covid-19 cases from Friday through Sunday, according to its website.
Last Friday, Romero said there were outbreaks at some colleges, including an “alarming” number of covid-19 cases at UA-Fayetteville.
The state Department of Health is conducting drive-thru testing at UA-Fayetteville for students today, Wednesday and Thursday.
Mark Rushing, UA-Fayetteville’s associate vice chancellor for university relations, said notifications were going out “in cases where individuals who are connected in some way through an organization, living or working arrangement, or other group activity receive positive test results.”
The notifications were “strongly encouraging all those in the group” to suspend activities, and UA-Fayetteville is also “encouraging all members of groups like this to be tested even if they are asymptomatic,” Rushing said in an email.
The drive-thru testing clinics “were scheduled in part to assist with this effort,” said Rushing. He did not name any groups with such positive test results.
Monday’s twice-weekly update from the state Department of Health on cases at educational institutions showed a trend of rising cases at multiple college campuses, including the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff with 18 active cases, the second-most of any college behind UA-Fayetteville.
Nine campuses and universities had five or more active cases, according to the department’s report.
Last Thursday’s statewide report listed five campuses with at least five cases. The report comes out Mondays and Thursdays.
The state tracks active cases differently than individual institutions, however. The report listed 80 active cases at UA-Fayetteville, while the university on Monday reported 222 active cases.
Since Aug. 10, 249 cases have been identified by UA-Fayetteville either through on-campus testing, state Department of Health testing or self-reported results.
The university’s totals include “individuals who may have been on campus this semester,” according to its website.
The university’s self-reported cases “almost certainly” include antigen test results, though on-campus tests are done using lab-confirmed tests, Rushing said. Antigen test results are not included in the twice-weekly educational institution reports, a state Health Department spokeswoman said, and neither are they included in statewide case totals announced by Hutchinson at his near-daily news conferences.
Hutchinson, asked Monday what number of covid-19 cases at college campuses would result in shifting to online-only courses, said universities “have a great deal of discretion.”
“They’ve got a good plan in place. I certainly hope that they will be able to continue classes, but in order to continue classes, it requires self-discipline by students,” Hutchinson said, referring to covid-19 guidelines that include physical distancing.
UA’s fall semester classes began Aug. 24, and the rise in cases has been reported “mostly within our student population,” Dr. Huda Sharaf, medical director for UA’s campus health center, said in a statement Monday.