The number of covid-19 infections in Arkansas increased by 111 reported cases Sunday, marking the sixth consecutive day that the Department of Health has tracked the spread of the disease at more than a hundred 100 cases.
Health officials have attributed the recent uptick in positive tests in part to both the outbreak at the Cummins Unit — where the the virus has proliferated in cramped conditions, spreading to 856 inmates as of Sunday — and to a recent campaign for “surge” testing among the public.
The governor and his public health team did not hold a daily press news conference Sunday to provide an update on the pandemic. Those daily briefings will resume Monday, his office said.
The new numbers reported on the Health Department’s website showed the number of cumulative cases of covid-19 totaled 2,941 on Sunday afternoon. The number of deaths remained the same as Saturday, at 49.
Sunday, 10:45 a.m.: State virus-case count rises by 168
The number of coronavirus cases in Arkansas had increased by 168 on Saturday, and though Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the strain on health care resources is below an initial projection, officials are extending caution about graduation ceremonies as the school year nears its end.
There will be no traditional high school graduation ceremonies in the state before July 1, officials announced at the governor's daily news briefing.
Education Secretary Johnny Key acknowledged that the end-of-year celebration is a highly anticipated event for students, educators and their families, but the risk is still too great to plan large gatherings.
"In many communities, high school graduation is one of the most attended, largest events in the community in the whole year," Key said. "When you have friends, family members coming from across the state, and in many cases coming from out of state, for a traditional graduation ceremony, we simply cannot mitigate sufficiently the risk of spread in a situation like that."
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The state's total number of cases was 2,909 as of Saturday evening, according to the Arkansas Department of Health. The death toll rose to 49.
State Health Secretary Nate Smith said 1,813 of the cases were active.
Forty-seven of the new cases were in the Cummins Unit, the state's largest prison. A total of 826 inmates have tested positive. Smith said the state Health Department was nearly finished with testing the prison's inmates and continues to test staff members.
The number of hospitalizations remained steady at 104. Twenty-five patients were on ventilators Saturday, the Health Department reported on its website Saturday evening.
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The number of recovered patients increased by 53, to 985. One of the recoveries is Arkansas' first diagnosed covid-19 patient, according to a Friday Facebook post from Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff. The hospital said the patient was discharged that evening after 49 days of hospitalization and is expected to make a full recovery.
All but three of the state's 75 counties -- Calhoun, Montgomery and Little River -- had known cases of the coronavirus as of Saturday. Smith said no new counties were added.
Hutchinson said he wanted to contrast the day's numbers with a projection from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. On April 8, that model projected that 2,000 Arkansans would be hospitalized with covid-19 by Saturday, Hutchinson said.
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"We are comfortable in our capability of managing the patients that we have and into the future," Hutchinson said.
The center last updated its model Wednesday and projected that 86 hospital beds would be needed in the state.
SURGE RESULTS
Saturday was the second day of a two-day testing "surge" campaign that Hutchinson announced Thursday, with the aim of driving up the number of coronavirus tests in the state.
The governor said there were more than 2,800 test results Friday, compared with the state running about 1,000 in recent days, sometimes falling below that.
"I was worried about the decline in our testing, and so we put together this two-day surge campaign," Hutchinson said. "I'm very, very grateful for our hospitals, for our clinics that have really stepped up, but also the public, who have listened to that message and responded."
The governor said he had surveyed some health systems around the state, including in Washington County, Fort Smith and northeast Arkansas, and found that their testing numbers had increased.
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"There's a good public response," Hutchinson said. "We're very, very delighted with some of the response and the increased response by the public in terms of seeking that test."
Smith added that the results from tests conducted during the surge Friday and Saturday wouldn't be known immediately.
"The numbers from the testing surge, we won't see for another day or two. It takes a day or two to get the results and then to get them reported to the Department of Health," he said.
There were 1,003 results that came in from Friday's testing, and the overall positive rate was 4.2%, which is relatively low, Smith said. Of those tests, 190 came from the state Department of Health lab, and 172 were from the lab at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
ALTERNATIVE CELEBRATIONS
Key, the education secretary, acknowledged that losing traditional graduations would be a disappointment to many. As July 1 nears, he said, officials will reevaluate that date in conjunction with the Health Department and determine if it needs to be modified.
"Right now, we're asking all of our schools not to plan any traditional high school graduations prior to July 1. We know that that may be too late for some," he said.
Key said the state would allow schools to put together nontraditional celebrations, possibly by digital means.
"There are a number of techniques that schools have already started exploring to see how they could make this happen as a celebration for their seniors, at the same time taking into consideration and following our social-distancing protocols, the restrictions of congregate gatherings of 10 or more people," he said.
The state will begin accepting proposals from school districts this week to evaluate the nontraditional celebrations, the education secretary said.
"We would ask that all schools be patient as we work through this situation. I would encourage you to wait. That would be my encouragement to school districts, would be to wait until after July 1, but if that's not an option for you then we will make this other option available for you," he said.
Key said the department will send more detail to district superintendents this week on how they can submit their proposals.
"We will be looking at those, turning those around as quickly as possible," he said.
PRISON OUTBREAK
The Cummins Unit, in rural Lincoln County, recently became one of the densest coronavirus hot spots in the country.
As of Saturday morning, the unit reported that three inmates with covid-19 were hospitalized outside the facility, Smith said. He added that the field hospital within the Cummins Unit is a low-acuity facility.
Officials are reviewing the cases of inmates in the state's prison system to determine who meets the criteria for the compassionate release program. Included in that assessment are nonviolent inmates who are not sex offenders who have parole dates within six months.
"That means we're just looking at them six months in advance, if they meet those criteria," Hutchinson said.
The governor said officials had identified about 1,600 prisoners who meet that criteria.
"The reason that I wanted to go through this process is because if we do have an outbreak in a different prison system or different prison institution in Arkansas, whether it be Calico Rock or Tucker, that we have space for the isolations and the protection and the health care that they need, so we're just freeing up some space in the event that that happens," Hutchinson said.
Story updated at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, April 26
A Section on 04/26/2020