Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
1,013 is state’s 2nd-largest case jump
Governor ‘frustrated,’ but cites data delay
Arkansas’ count of coronavirus cases rose Thursday by 1,013 — the state’s second-largest one-day increase, one that included the biggest jump so far in cases among people not incarcerated.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he expected a large increase after a “delay in some of the entry into the system” caused the increase in the state’s case count Wednesday to dip below 600 for the first time in a week.
“I’m frustrated by it, but that does include some overlap from the previous day that we were not able to get entered in time,” he said.
The state’s death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Arkansas Department of Health, rose by six, to 386.
The number of Arkansans hospitalized with covid-19 also rose by six, to 480.
The hospitalized patients included 107 who were on ventilators, a number that hadn’t changed from a day earlier.
The statewide count of cases rose to 36,259.
Interim Health Secretary Jose Romero said just five of the cases added to the state’s total were among prison or jail inmates.
The remaining 1,008 cases set a new record for a oneday increase in positive results from among the state’s nonincarcerated population. The previous record was the 860 such cases that were added to the total July 2.
The only other time the total case count rose by more than 1,000 was an increase of 1,061 cases July 11. That increase included 346 cases among inmates.
The average number of cases added over a rolling seven-day period increased from 707 a day as of Wednesday to 735, a number that was
still below the peak average of 745 cases a day as of July 14.
The number of cases in the state that were considered active rose by 133, to 7,009, as 874 Arkansans were newly classified as having recovered.
VISIT RULES CHANGED
Also on Thursday, the Health Department released new rules bringing the Conway Human Development Center a step closer to being allowed to have visitors despite the more than 100 residents and 47 employees there who had tested positive as of Tuesday evening.
The rules, dated Wednesday, allow a long-term care facility made up of separate buildings or “physically separated units” to be treated as “separate facilities for the purposes of allowing expanded visitation and other activities if the Arkansas Department of Health determines that it is appropriate to do so.”
The department “will determine appropriateness on a case-by-case basis and take into account factors including without limitation the physical distance between a facility’s buildings or units, a facility’s ability to isolate affected buildings or units, and facility’s ability to not share staff between buildings or units,” the rules say.
If the department determines a facility’s building or units can be treated as separate facilities for the purpose of allowing visits, it will issue a letter to the facility and notify the state’s Office of Long Term care, the rules say.
The rules followed complaints by family members of residents at the Conway center for people with severe developmental disabilities. Groups of residents live in separate buildings at the center.
Family members have complained of not being allowed to visit their relatives who live in buildings where no residents or staff members have tested positive.
Health Department rules prohibit visits at a long-term care facility within 28 days of a resident or worker testing positive.
Romero said the new rules would allow visits to resume at some of the Conway center’s buildings.
“I’m so excited,” Janice Hanlon, a Maumelle resident whose 48-year-old son lives at the center, said Thursday.
She said none of the residents or staff members in the building where her son lives has tested positive.
“I think it will be so good for him and the others up there,” Hanlon said.
Amy Webb, a spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, said in an email that the department “will be working with the Health Department on this and will let families know as soon as we have approval to safely open visitation.”
“We know our families are eager to see their loved ones, and we are eager to make that safely happen,” Webb said.
SCHOOL GUIDELINES DISCUSSED
At his daily news conference on the pandemic, Hutchinson also responded to a statement by the Arkansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Tuesday that recommended against reopening schools to in-classroom instruction in counties with high levels of coronavirus transmission.
“That concept is built into the framework that we have issued in terms of statewide guidelines, so we are paying attention,” Hutchinson said.
Guidelines unveiled by the state earlier this month recommend steps that school districts should take in response to coronavirus cases among students or employees depending on factors that include the level of transmission in the community.
Under some scenarios, those guidelines call for closing a school or entire district in consultation with the Health Department.
According to the Education Department’s website, however, the guidelines are “not intended to identify a district’s status prior to the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year,” but rather to help districts respond “to situations that may be encountered when on-site learning resumes.”
Hutchinson has said he wants students to have in-classroom options when the school year starts next month.
The pediatrician group recommended opening classrooms only in counties that meet the White House guidelines for states on moving from one phase of reopening to the next.
Those call for a “downward trajectory” of cases or the percentage of tests that are positive over a two-week period.
“That’s just a different way to look at it,” Hutchinson said. “We are going county by county in terms of our approach to it.
“The difference is that we want to start with in-classroom instruction. They do not necessarily want to do that, and so we have, again, 30 days to make our progress and to plan on it.
“I think that’s important, and I do want to continue to work with them, and hopefully we can have some discussions that will be useful.”
While many school districts are offering online options, foster parents who want to enroll their children in that option must obtain the state’s permission.
The parents must submit a form to the Human Services Department’s Division of Children and Family Services with information on why they want to choose the online option and the technology available to the child in the home.
“These children and teens are in our custody and we have to make sure that the local team, including the biological parents, are involved in the decision, especially because reunification is the goal for most youth and they return home,” Webb said.
“We also have the responsibility to ensure that there is a plan for parent support for virtual school and that youth have what they need to be successful.”
She said the department had received 48 requests to enroll foster children in virtual school and all of them had been approved.
The state has about 2,700 school-age foster children, she said.
TESTING SLOWS
The increase in the state’s cases came despite a slowdown in testing by the Health Department’s laboratory in Little Rock.
After averaging more than 1,600 tests a day over the previous several days, the lab tested specimens from only 570 patients Tuesday and 867 on Wednesday.
“There was a slowdown in the data entry system — the names and the patient data — so that slowed us down pretty badly,” Romero said. “We had to resort to the old-fashioned way, which is simply writing on a piece of paper.”
Health Department spokeswoman Danyelle McNeill said the problem stemmed from a software glitch Tuesday that was fixed Wednesday afternoon.
As of Thursday afternoon, the lab had a backlog of 879 specimens waiting to be tested, she said.
She said the backlog should be cleared out today.
“Once you have a lull, it takes a while to get it back up, so we’re pushing it,” Romero said.
Including results from commercial laboratories and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the total number of tests received by the department fell from 5,812 on Monday to 4,338 on Tuesday before climbing back to 5,478 on Wednesday.
From the time a specimen is collected, the Health Department’s lab returns results in an average of 61 hours, McNeill said.
LATEST CASES
The cases added to the state’s total Thursday included 113 in Pulaski County, 76 in Washington County, 73 in Benton County, 65 in Sebastian County, 41 in Craighead County and 43 in Crittenden County, Hutchinson said.
“Numerous” other counties had increases of 25 to 30 cases, he said.
Meanwhile, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said seven prison inmates have died of the virus since late last week, bringing the total number of virus deaths among inmates to 25.
One inmate, from the East Arkansas Regional Unit near Brickeys, died July 17 at CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock, she said. She said he was in his late 50s and serving time for capital murder.
Among inmates at the Ouachita River Unit in Malvern, the deaths included a man in his 60s, serving time for incest, who died July 17 at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs; a man in his late 50s, serving time for possession of a forgery device, who died at National Park Medical Center in Hot Springs on Sunday; a man in his mid-60s, serving time for sexual assault, who died at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs on Tuesday; a man in his early 80s, serving time for first-degree murder, who died at the prison’s hospital Tuesday; and a man in his early 70s, serving time for capital murder, who died at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs on Wednesday.
The deaths brought the toll from the virus to five at the East Arkansas Regional Unit and seven at the Ouachita River Unit.
One inmate who had been housed at the Tucker Unit also died Thursday at the Ouachita River Unit, she said.
The cases added to the state’s total Thursday included 113 in Pulaski County, 76 in Washington County, 73 in Benton County, 65 in Sebastian County, 41 in Craighead County and 43 in Crittenden County, Hutchinson said.
Information for this article was contributed by Jeannie Roberts of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.