Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday expressed concern about the slowing pace of covid-19 vaccinations in Arkansas, and he encouraged college students to get at least one dose before summer break.
"If you only get one vaccine [dose], whenever you go home, you get your second vaccine," Hutchinson said, directing the remarks at the state's college students.
"The same thing will be true for the students who will be coming home from other, out-of-state schools. You can even get your second vaccine [dose] here."
Hutchinson spoke as the state's count of coronavirus cases rose by 198 -- the third daily increase in a row that was smaller than the one a week earlier.
The number of covid-19 patients in the state's hospitals, however, rose by 13, to 177, its highest level since March 25.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the state Department of Health, rose by seven, to 5,706.
At his weekly news conference on the pandemic, Hutchinson noted that 19,583 doses had been administered since the Health Department's last report a day earlier.
"Not bad, but we'd like to have it higher," the Republican governor said. "A week ago, it was higher than that, and so we need to increase the demand for our doses.
"We have an ample supply. We continue to order what's allocated to us from the federal government, but we need our citizens to go out and get vaccinated."
He said it was "good news" that, according to the Health Department, 41.7% of adult Arkansans had had at least one vaccine dose.
But he also noted that that percentage is "below the national average."
"I think part of it is just some natural resistance in the South, in a rural state, and it shows that we have some of that resistance to overcome," Hutchinson said.
"We're below the national average. There's vaccines out there, and it's a demand issue, so we need to increase that percent. We're getting closer to the 50%, and then we're going to have to work real hard to get it closer to the 60[%] and 70% that we want."
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 51.1% of U.S. adults, including 43.4% of those in Arkansas, had received at least one vaccine dose as of Tuesday.
Those figures, unlike the Health Department's numbers, include doses administered by federal entities such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the military and the Bureau of Prisons.
The CDC's figures also include Arkansans who were vaccinated in other states except Texas, which only reports aggregate information to the CDC.
According to the federal agency, Arkansas as of Sunday had met Hutchinson's goal for 1 million Arkansans to have at least one vaccine dose by this week.
The number rose Tuesday by 2,755, to 1,015,859.
The Health Department put the number as of Tuesday at 973,452.
VACCINATIONS BY AGE
Hutchinson noted that the percentage of Arkansans who have been vaccinated is higher among those age 65 and older than other age groups.
According to the Health Department, the percentage who had received at least one vaccine dose was 68.5% among those age 65 and older, 33.7% for those age 18-64 and 10.5% for those age 16-17.
"What we've got to work on harder is the 18-to-64 age group -- those people that believe they're very healthy, they're very busy, and they put it off," Hutchinson said. "They say, 'Well we can do it later.'
"We need you to get vaccinated for the good of the state, for the good of the community and your own health."
Hutchinson also displayed a chart showing that 55.8% of Hispanics age 65 and older in the state had been fully vaccinated. The rate in that age group was 49.1% for white residents and 45.1% for Black residents.
A month ago, the gap in the percentage fully vaccinated between white and Black residents age 65 and older was 9.5 percentage points, Hutchinson said.
"We've closed that gap down" to 4 percentage points, Hutchinson said, attributing the improvement to the work of the Health Department, churches and community organizations.
Arkansas has fared better than most other states recently in its number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths from covid-19, but Hutchinson said that could change unless more Arkansans get vaccinated.
If the vaccination percentage doesn't reach 70%, "that means we're in jeopardy of having cases go up, particularly this winter," Hutchinson said.
"Whenever you have 50% vaccinated, that is a protection for many in the community and that's helpful, but the epidemiologists want to get up to a higher level, and that's what we want to do," he said.
Health Department Chief of Staff Stephanie Williams said at the news conference that the department will begin administering the Moderna vaccine next week at its local health units in each of the state's 75 counties.
The units are open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every weekday except Tuesdays, when the hours are 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., she said.
People can make appointments for the shots by calling one of the units or the department's vaccine hot line, (800) 985-6030.
Williams said the department will also offer the vaccine at the Arkansas Made-Arkansas Proud Market, an event May 15 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock showcasing food, furniture and clothing and other products from more than 100 vendors.
Hutchinson said the Health Department and Department of Education have also been working to set up vaccine clinics at schools for children as young as 16 -- currently the minimum age allowed to receive the shots.
He said vaccinations have been administered to 375 students in Bentonville, 190 in El Dorado and 56 in Alma.
Health Secretary Jose Romero said the importance of vaccinating teenagers is heightened by the spread of more-transmissible variants that have fueled surges in other states.
"In those northern states, we're seeing more cases in children and adolescents, and the disease tends to be more severe than it had been for the original strain," Romero said.
According to the Health Department, the number of cases in Arkansas identified as having been caused by the variant from the United Kingdom has more than doubled, from eight to 17, since early last week.
The state has also identified a total of 17 cases caused by two different variants from California and one caused by the variant from Brazil.
Those numbers hadn't changed from last week.
Benton, Washington and Miller counties have each had five to 20 cases identified as having been caused by variants, according to the department.
Between one and four such cases have been found in Crawford, Drew, Faulkner, Garland, Grant, Greene, Hot Spring, Independence, Jefferson, Johnson, Pulaski, Sebastian, Union and White counties.
The total number of cases caused by variants in the state is unknown because only a small percentage of specimens are sent to laboratories that perform the genomic sequencing required to determine that.
ON-CAMPUS VACCINATIONS
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville announced Tuesday a restart of its on-campus vaccination effort with appointments being taken to receive doses of the Pfizer shot.
The campus will begin with a limited number on hand -- 100 doses -- to try to ensure that none go to waste, spokesman Zac Brown said in an email, as UA wants to "determine what the current demand looks like."
UA halted on-campus vaccinations April 13 after federal health and safety organizations recommended a pause in administering the single-dose vaccine by Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses scheduled three weeks apart, meaning that students would be getting a second dose after the May 3 start of final exams for UA's spring semester.
The timing results in some logistical challenges, Brown said.
"Ideally we will try and limit appointments to students that can return for their follow-up, however we also recognize we could run in to rescheduling conflicts, etc," Brown said.
The university is scheduling appointments by phone, Brown said.
"If it turns out a student needs to reschedule or has left the region, they can call us beforehand and our staff will assist as best we can," Brown said. Using the phone to take appointments rather than setting them up online allows the UA staff to go over different vaccine opportunities with students, Brown said.
The university is "strongly" recommending but not requiring vaccination, according to its Tuesday announcement.
"When you factor in the available clinics and appointments off-campus, we feel comfortable with our university community's access to vaccines within the region," Brown said.
Statewide, the average number of vaccine doses administered each day over a rolling seven-day period, including second doses of Pfizer and Moderna, fell below 19,000 on Tuesday for the first time since March 26.
At about 18,750 doses a day, the average was down from almost 21,500 a day the previous week.
The number of Arkansans reported by the CDC as having received at least one vaccine dose as of Tuesday represented 33.7% of the state's population.
The number of Arkansans who had been fully vaccinated rose by 3,803, to 658,933, or 21.8% of the state's population.
Among the states and District of Columbia, Arkansas ranked 43rd in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one vaccine dose and 46th in the percentage who had been fully vaccinated.
Nationally, 40.1% of people had received at least one vaccine dose, including 26% who were fully vaccinated.
REPORTS RELEASED
According to a federal report released Tuesday, Arkansas had 1,245 new cases during the week that ended Thursday, up from 1,095 the previous week.
After having the lowest number of new cases per capita for at least the previous two weeks, Arkansas in the most recent report had the second-lowest number after Hawaii.
For at least the second straight week, Arkansas was listed as having the third-lowest percentage of polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests that were positive over a seven-day span and the fourth-lowest number of hospital admissions per 100 inpatient beds.
The state's rate of less than one death per 100,000 residents during the week that ended Thursday was the country's 14th-lowest.
In their latest forecast report, also released Tuesday, researchers with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health predicted the number of people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with covid-19 will rise by June 15 to 16,713, an increase of 1,020 compared with the number as of Tuesday.
SCHOOL CASES UP
Within public school districts, the number of active cases among students and staff members increased by about 10%, to 238, over a four-day period that ended Monday, according to the most recent state Department of Health data.
The number was up about 56% from April 1 but below the level seen just before spring break week, when a March 18 report listed 302 active cases.
The Cabot School District topped all others on Monday, with 20 active cases among students and staff members.
Superintendent Tony Thurman said Tuesday that despite rising cases, in-person classes have continued without disruption.
Face coverings became optional April 2 at Cabot schools, according to the district's website.
But the district's announcement of the change said a masking requirement can be reinstated by the superintendent, in consultation with the district's School Board, if a school's covid-19 positivity rate increases.
"It has not been necessary to modify any programming nor have any changes been made to our flexible face covering policy," Thurman said in an email Tuesday.
The district -- which has about 10,500 students, according to state data -- began the month with five active cases of covid-19, according to an April 1 Health Department report.
The Springdale School District was listed in Monday's report as having the second-most active cases, 15, followed by the Pulaski County Special School District with 14 cases.
The report listed 13 districts with five or more active cases. That was up from 11 districts in the department's previous report, on Thursday.
Among colleges and universities, active cases fell from 86 as of Thursday to 76.
UA topped all colleges on Monday with 24 active cases, followed by the the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff with eight and Harding University with seven.
HOSPITALIZATIONS 'WORRISOME'
Tuesday was the fourth day in a row the number of patients hospitalized with covid-19 in the state was higher than the day before.
The number of those patients who were on ventilators also rose for the fourth straight day, going from 22 as of Monday to 24.
"We continue to hold our own in the number of new cases," Hutchinson said, noting that it was down from the 224 added the previous Tuesday, April 13.
But he called the increase in patients hospitalized with the virus a "worrisome point."
"It's just a reminder that we do have the virus in our community, and that we need to be careful and get vaccinated," Hutchinson said.
The 15,693 people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with covid-19 represented an increase of 30 compared with the total as of a day earlier.
The number of the state's virus patients who have ever been on a ventilator rose by one, to 1,604.
The average number of cases that were added to the state's tallies over a rolling seven-day period fell from 184 as of Monday to 180.
That was down from a peak of more than 3,000 a day in early January but remained above this year's low of 151 during the week that ended April 2.
After falling the previous two days, the number of cases that were considered active rose by 15, to 1,804, as new cases outpaced recoveries.
The cases that were added Tuesday included 132 that were confirmed through PCR tests.
The other 66 were "probable" cases, which include those identified through less-sensitive antigen tests.
The cumulative count of state cases rose to 333,709.
That comprised 261,604 confirmed cases and 72,105 probable ones.
Benton County had the largest number of new cases, 29, followed by Pulaski County, which had 26, and Washington County, which had 22.
Neither the Health Department nor the Department of Corrections reported any new cases among prison or jail inmates.
The state's death toll rose by five, to 4,530, among confirmed cases and by two, to 1,176, among probable cases.
Among nursing home and assisted-living facility residents, the count of virus deaths rose by one, to 2,071.