COVID-19 update

EDITOR’S NOTE: As a service to our readers, The SentinelRecord will publish updates released each weekday by the city of Hot Springs and the state of Arkansas.

The following stats were shared Friday at Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s daily COVID-19 news conference in Little Rock and posted on the Arkansas Department of Health’s website:

• 2,741 confirmed cases statewide, up 276 from Thursday (Friday’s results included 198 inmates in the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction).

• 35,443 test results, up 1,457 from Thursday.

• 7.7% rate of infection, up from 7.3% Thursday.

• 932 recoveries, up 30 from Thursday.

• 46 deaths, up one from Thursday.

• 104 cases requiring hospitalization, up three from Thursday.

• 285 health care workers infected, up 10 from Thursday.

• 176 cases in nursing homes, up two from Thursday.

• 25 cases on a ventilator, up one from Thursday.

• 109 confirmed cases in Garland County, no change from Thursday.

• 1,692 test results from Garland County, up 32 from Thursday.

• 6.4% rate of infection, down from 6.6% Thursday.

• 69 recoveries in Garland County, up one from Thursday.

Hutchinson said the 2,808 test results the state received since Thursday afternoon were the largest single-day total to date, surpassing the previous single-day high of 1,600. A 4.1% rate of infection was reported for the more than 2,800 tests.

Inmates in the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction have accounted for most of the new cases reported since Monday. According to daily updates provided by Dr. Nate Smith, Health Department secretary, the inmates represented 713 of the new cases reported from Monday to Friday, but he said Friday that 690 inmates in the southeast Arkansas prison are infected.

Those cases skew the state’s overall total, but Smith expressed concern about the rise in other new cases since Wednesday. New cases not involving inmates rose from 36 Wednesday, to 67 Thursday and 78 Friday. The state’s non-inmate total includes prison staff, which Smith said includes more than 30 workers at the prison.

He said northeast Arkansas has had a slight increase in cases. Much of the spike has been attributed to Crittenden County, which borders the Memphis metropolitan area. The more than 150 positive cases give the county of about 50,000 people one of the state’s highest per capita rates of infection.

No new cases were reported for Garland County as of Friday afternoon, marking the sixth day out of the last seven with no new infections.

Hutchinson announced restrictions on dental office procedures will be lifted May 18. Restrictions will be removed for some procedures, provided they’re performed under certain conditions. He said dental surgery falls under elective surgical procedures, which the state has allowed to resume Monday.

The city said Friday that all city bus passengers will be required to wear masks covering the nose and mouth beginning Monday at 6 a.m. Masks can be disposable, cloth, bandannas or scarfs. The intracity transit department will have a limited supply of cloth masks for riders.

A request the city sent Thursday to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development seeks a waiver associated with its $254,000 allotment from the $5 billion in Community Development Block Grant funds Congress provided for state and local coronavirus preparation and response.

The city is asking to waive the requirement that the emergency funds only be used inside the city, as it and Garland County have been partnering on the local pandemic response. Their coordination includes buying protective equipment on the open market and supporting evaluation and testing centers inside and outside the city.

“These are substantial waivers to request from the CDBG program since it is based on the main principles of the program,” Deputy City Manager Lance Spicer said. “Hot Springs and Garland County are very much intertwined from a sense of place standpoint. So it makes sense we do the same when combating the coronavirus.”

The city is also asking to waive documentation requirements, specifically those tied to providing the homeless and low-income people with coronavirus-related isolation/quarantine lodging, services, needs and supplies.

“For these COVID-19 response activities, we would have to get and maintain paperwork that states their annual income or if they are disabled and or elderly, plus be sure they are city residents,” Spicer said. “Without waivers being granted, these CDBG funds will require additional paperwork and limit their reach and impact.”