Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
State virus-case tally jumps by 703 in day
Infections at 14,631; coverings now advised
Arkansas’ count of coronavirus cases rose Friday by 703, including a one-day record of 662 infections that were not of prison inmates.
The state’s count of cases rose to 14,631.
The state’s death toll from the virus, as tracked by the state Department of Health, rose by six, to 214.
Already at record levels since Monday, the number of Arkansans hospitalized with the virus rose by five, to 231.
Fifty-seven of the hospitalized patients were on ventilators, up from 53 a day earlier.
At his daily news conference on the pandemic, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that, at his request, the Health Department had posted a new document on its website recommending that Arkansans wear face coverings in all indoor environments where they could come within 6 feet of people who are not from their household.
“This includes, but is not limited to, workplaces (with few exceptions), retail stores, businesses, places of worship, courtrooms, jails and prisons, schools, healthcare facilities, other people’s homes and all the scenarios addressed by the Governor’s Directives,” the document says.
People also should wear masks “at all outdoor settings where they are exposed to non-household members, unless there is ample space (6 feet or more) to practice physical distancing,” the document says.
Hutchinson said the document pulls together recommendations the Health Department had already made for specific types of businesses or settings but doesn’t create any new mandates.
While the Health Department has required customers and employees to wear masks in certain types of businesses, such as restaurants and hair salons, Hutchinson said a broader mandate would be hard to enforce.
“I think it’s most important to use enforcement resources for where our directive is in place in terms of restaurants and other businesses because those are directives, but this is not what you want to see in Arkansas, that you’re going to be having people call the governor’s office and say I saw John or Jane Doe out on the street, and they didn’t’ have a mask,” Hutchinson said.
The Republican governor has discouraged cities from passing ordinances requiring mask use.
For instance, he said an ordinance passed by Fayetteville this week, requiring masks to be worn in most indoor public places, conflicts with his emergency declaration that gives him and Health Secretary Nate Smith “sole authority over all instances of quarantine, isolation, and restrictions on commerce and travel.”
Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. has said he plans to issue an executive order that would require people to wear masks in public places in the Capital City.
“It’s important that the public have one general guidance on this issue and it should come from the Department of Health,” Hutchinson said Friday.
DHS EMPLOYEES INFECTED
The cases added to the state’s total on Friday included 136 in Washington County; 112 in Benton County; 53 in Pulaski County; 44 in Sevier County; 26 in Sebastian County; 22 in Faulkner County; and 21 in Yell County.
Forty-one of the cases added to the statewide total were among prison inmates. Those cases are often added to the total several days after the testing is performed, after information from laboratory reports is entered into a state database.
At the Wrightsville Unit, the number of infections among inmates increased Friday by 25, to 41, according to Health Department reports.
At the state Department of Human Services’ central office complex in Little Rock, a positive test result from an employee on Thursday prompted the department to send home the approximately 150 employees who work on the fifth floor of one of its buildings.
Human Services Department spokesman Amy Webb said the employee had been ill while working last week.
“We consulted with the Health Department and took a very cautious approach given that the employee had been feeling ill for several days and had been at work,” Webb said in an email.
As part of a contact-tracing investigation, several employees who had been near the employee who tested positive were asked to get tested on Friday, Webb said.
A second employee who works on the floor tested positive Friday, Webb said. She said she didn’t know if that employee was one of the ones identified through contact tracing as being at risk of infection.
In addition, she said the department was notified Thursday that an employee who works in a different building within the complex tested positive after working in the building on Monday and Tuesday.
“After talking with the Health Department, a section of that floor will be cleaned (the area where that employee was) and a couple of additional people have been sent home and asked to get tested,” Webb said.
She said the 150 employees on the floor that was cleared were working from home.
“We should get test results back this weekend for the ones who were tested,” Webb said. “If all looks good, then the employees who were sent home will be asked to return to work on Monday. If we need to re-evaluate based on the test results we will.”
The cases at the department followed Monday’s return to state office buildings thousands of employees who had been working at home.
That change was part of the start of the state’s second phase of relaxing measures put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“Note that we are requiring masks in all common spaces, including hallways, bathrooms, when waiting in line to be screened and have made adjustments where needed to ensure at least six feet distance for everyone, including those in cubicles,” Webb said.
POULTRY WORKER CASES INCREASE
Tyson Foods on Friday also released the results of on-site testing from June 4-13 of 3,700 workers at several locations in Washington and Benton counties.
It said it had identified 481 workers who had the virus, including 455 who were asymptomatic.
At its plant on Berry Street in Springdale, the company said 227 workers had tested positive, up from the 199 that the company announced last week.
The next largest number was at Tyson’s Rogers plant, where 158 of the 513 employees tested positive.
The newly identified cases were in addition to 212 workers who had tested positive earlier after being identified by the Health Department as at risk of having the virus or seeking care from their own health care providers, the company said.
Statewide, the number of poultry workers who have tested positive increased by 276, to 1,734, between Monday and Friday, according to Health Department reports.
The largest number of cases was at the Ozark Mountain Poultry plant in Rogers, where 241 workers have tested positive, according to the department.
That number was up from the 224 who were listed as testing positive in a Health Department report on Monday.
TARGET, FACTORY AFFECTED
A Target in Fayetteville and a baby-wipes factory in Russellville were added Friday to a Health Department list of workplaces where at least five employees have active infections, meaning they tested positive and have not yet recovered.
At the Rockline Industries plant, 15 workers have tested positive, all but five of whom have recovered from their infections, according to a Health Department report.
Target had six infected workers, including one who had recovered, according to the report.
At the Springdale School District, meanwhile, the report listed seven employees as having tested positive, up from five on Monday.
Two of the employees have recovered, according to the report.
Springdale’s KSFM-TV quoted school district spokesman Rick Schaeffer this week as saying that five employees who tested positive are custodians.
Schaeffer said Friday that privacy laws prevented him from answering questions from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “We are following Arkansas Department of Health guidelines,” Schaeffer said in an email.
WORSHIP SERVICES CITED
Friday’s increase in cases came exactly a week after the previous one-day record of 524 cases from Arkansans who are not prison inmates that was added to the state’s total on June 12.
The total number of cases added that day, including 207 cases among prison inmates, was still the record as of Friday for a one-day increase in the state’s overall count.
Smith said the pattern of large spikes coming at the end of the workweek suggests that people are becoming infected over the weekend, possibly at church or other gatherings.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most people develop symptoms within four or five days of becoming infected.
“When it comes to the weekend, people can’t let their guard down in terms of attending large events, not physical distancing and not wearing masks, because then we can see transmission in those settings,” Smith said.
He said the department has identified about 25 places of worship that people attended while infected with the virus.
“Unfortunately in at least a third of those settings, the place of worship was not implementing masks, at least not requiring it, or the majority of attendees were not wearing masks, and that’s a risk, especially in larger congregations,” Smith said.
“So this is something that we need to look at very carefully if we want to limit the spread of covid-19 especially on the weekends.”
The Health Department hasn’t issued a directive that applies to churches but has recommended that they take steps such as requiring congregants to wear masks and providing 6 feet of space between groups of family members.
MASK USE URGED
The department’s guidance document on masks notes that an increasing amount of evidence indicates that wearing a mask can prevent an infected person from spreading the virus to other people through droplets emitted when someone coughs, sneezes, speaks or breathes.
In one instance, two hairstylists in Missouri who were infected and had symptoms “exposed 140 clients and 6 co-workers,” the document says.
The salon where they were employed required universal use of face coverings,” the document says. “The stylists wore cloth masks. Of the 46 people who agreed to be tested for COVID-19, none were positive.
“Additionally, none of the 146 exposed people developed symptoms of COVID-19.”
It says information about the episode was provided by the Missouri Department of Health.
The document also says a study funded by the World Health Organization found that wearing a mask “not only served as preventing spread from an infected person but also gave some protection from COVID-19 to the wearer as well.”
Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. has said he plans to issue an executive order that would also require people to wear masks in public places in the Capital City.
LATEST DEATHS
Two virus deaths added to the state’s count on Friday were in Carroll County and two were in Washington County.
That raised the number of virus deaths to 17 in Washington County and three in Carroll County.
Mississippi County, meanwhile, had its third virus death, and Nevada County had its second.
Three of the deaths were of people age 45 to 64, and three were of people 65 or older, according to the Health Department.
At Woodland Hills Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Jacksonville, the number of residents who have died from the virus, as tracked in Health Department reports, increased from three to eight.
A total of 50 residents at the home, including the ones who have died, were listed as having tested positive, up from 27 in a report on Thursday.
The number of staff members at the home who were listed as testing positive increased from 24 to 31.
Statewide, 84 residents of nursing homes or assisted-living facilities have died from the virus, according to a Health Department report.
Including the ones who have died, the number of residents at the facilities who have tested positive increased by 31, to 653.
Known infections among workers at the facilities increased by 21, to 389.