Recoveries increase over new virus cases
With 632 recoveries, the state had its first day in several weeks where recoveries increased more than new cases for a total of 15,163 recoveries, Secretary of Health
Nate Smith said during Gov.
Asa Hutchinson’s daily briefing Wednesday.
There were 420 new cases of COVID-19 for a total of 21,197 at the time of the briefing. There are now 5,757 active cases. Deaths rose by seven, bringing the statewide total to 277.
On Tuesday, it was touted by Hutchinson and Smith that hospitalizations decreased by 10 in the previous 24 hours leading to the briefing, but that deaths had increased by five.
On Wednesday, Saline Courier editor Josh Briggs joined the briefing via Zoom and asked the governor and Smith if the decrease in hospitalized individuals was a result of deaths also increasing.
Smith said that when a patient dies in the hospital from COVID19 they are removed from the hospitalizations stat, but that a number of deaths that are recorded do not actually occur at a hospital.
Instead, Smith added that many are in long-term care facilities or hospice at the time of death, meaning the death rate does not help improve hospitalizations entirely.
In Saline County, there are now 292 total cases with 81 remaining active. Recoveries have reached 209 while deaths remain at two. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 8,700 have tested negative for the virus in the county.
The number of tests for June in Arkansas totaled 180,595, surpassing the governor’s goal of 120,000 during the month.
Smith discussed the nonrespiratory complications from COVID-19, including blood clots, neurological issues, such as stroke, and heart disease.
“This is a severe condition that changes lives as well as ends lives,” Smith said.
He talked about a man in his 20s who died because the virus caused a blood clot to migrate to his lungs and a young doctor who recovered from the virus but is now battling heart disease.
“Everyone needs to be wearing a mask to prevent it,” he said.
Hutchinson held up a football at the beginning of the conference and said that if people want to see
sports in the fall, they need to wear face coverings to prevent the spread of the virus now.
Smith showed a graph to illustrate the outcomes of those who have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 using a graph showing data as of June 25. At that time, there had been 1,300 total people hospitalized due to the virus. Of those, 263 or 20.2 percent were still hospitalized, 860 or 66.2 percent had been discharged and
177 or 13.6 percent had died.
He also showed a graph using the June 25 numbers to show outcomes for those who had been on ventilators. There had been 203 as of that date. Of those, 94 (or 46.3 percent) had died, 57
(or 28.1 percent) had been taken off a ventilator and 52 (or 25.6 percent) were still on a ventilator.
Hutchinson announced that due to the inability to test all soldiers taking part in the exercises, the Arkansas National Guard training that was scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled.
The training would have involved close to 4,000 guardsmen from multiple states.
Maj. Gen. Kendall Penn explained that as they dug into federal rules around testing during a training, funding could only be used to test those who have symptoms and not all the participants.
After discussing the issue with Hutchinson, it was decided to cancel to keep soldiers safe.
He is issuing guidance to send out to allow guardsmen to continue their training.
Hutchinson said nursing homes with questions about being permitted to allow visitors can contact the Department of Health or the Department of Human Services. Those that have had a case of COVID-19 in the past 28 days will not be permitted to have visitors. Visitation was set to begin Wednesday for long-term care facilities, however, none of the Saline County facilities opened their doors, citing a number of reasons be it positive cases, simply not ready or have not been in contact with the state officials.
Hutchinson was asked about reports of fraud in unemployment claims. He said there have been cases and they are being investigated. If it seems a case is not genuine, it does not get paid. He said those cases that can be prosecuted will be.
Hutchinson holds his daily briefing most days at 1:30 p.m. It can be viewed through Youtube Live.