Governor to encourage vaccinations in FC stop

Event at Civic Center part of Hutchinson’s ‘listening’ tour

Gov. Asa Hutchinson is scheduled to stop in Forrest City Tuesday evening as part of a statewide push to convince more people to take a Covid vaccine.

Hutchinson began his “listening” tours last week in response to an increase in the number of new Covid cases in the state combined with the state’s low vaccination rate.

The Lee County Cooperative Clinic will also have staff at Tuesday’s event at the Civic Center, offering vaccinations beginning at 5 p.m., prior to Hutchinson speaking at 6.

Since Friday, the Arkansas Department of Health has reported an additional 39 new Covid cases in St. Francis and surrounding counties.

In this region, Lee County has the most new cases with 11, followed by St. Francis County with eight. The ADH reports Monroe County has six new cases, Cross County has five, Phillips County has four, Crittenden County has three and Woodruff County has two.

The ADH is reporting seven new recoveries from the virus since Friday, along with 184 additional tests. There were no new deaths reported in this region from Covid over the weekend, according to the ADH report.

In regard to the vaccination push, Hutchinson said, “This is a chance for me to hear your concerns and ideas. “It’s a chance for me to continue to encourage people to get vaccinated. This is the challenge we face. A month ago, the number of our active Covid cases and our hospitalizations had declined. We were increasing our vaccinations across the state. We were very optimistic about the return to normalcy.

“Then over the past month, our vaccination rate stalled at about 40 percent, and the Delta variant showed up,” Hutchinson continued. “This right-left punch has sidetracked our return to normalcy.”

The Centers for Disease Control, in a report published Sunday, shows that 36.6% of St. Francis County’s eligible population has received at least one dose of the vaccine with 30.6% fully vaccinated. In Lee County, the CDC reports 27.4% of the eligible population has receive one vaccine dose with 23.1% fully vaccinated.

The Delta variant is more contagious than the original

Covid-19 virus, and the symptoms are worse, according to health officials, who said all three of the vaccines currently available offer protection against Covid.

According to a press release from Hutchinson’s office, the antibodies from a previous case of Covid do not protect against the variant, and health experts advise those who have contracted Covid to get a vaccine. The vaccine reduces the symptoms in those who do catch it, and 90 percent of those aren’t hospitalized. The vaccine cuts the chance of death to almost zero.

“Arkansas has chosen the path of personal responsibility over government rules, Hutchinson told an audience recently. “The state is wide open. We aren’t mandating masks or vaccinations. We know what we must do, and for the most part, Arkansans have done the hard work. The big task before us now is to vaccinate more Arkansans.”

As part of the tour, Hutchinson was scheduled to discuss vaccinations today in Batesville, tomorrow afternoon in Blytheville before heading to Forrest City, and again on Thursday in Texarkana.