The first person in Arkansas to receive the covid-19 vaccine was a state Department of Health nurse practitioner who trains others in testing and providing direct patient care to those afflicted with the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Monday's initial wave of vaccinations came as another 45 deaths attributed to covid-19 brought the state just 10 short of reaching 3,000 deaths since the pandemic officially hit in March.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday was a "hopeful day."
"After months of work, a COVID-19 vaccine is in Arkansas, and the first vaccine was given to Sherian Kwanisai today," he said. "The [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] should approve additional vaccines soon, and we will be set to cover our long-term care facilities. Brighter days are ahead, but we must continue to follow public health guidelines. This virus continues to rapidly spread, and it's up to each of us to do our part to slow the spread."
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Kwanisai is the nursing director for the Health Department's Center for Local Public Health.
The FDA on Friday granted an emergency-use authorization for the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.
"I did my happy dance today," state Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said. "I am so relieved to have vaccine in Arkansas. I cannot tell you what that means to me."
UAMS Medical Center and Baptist Health Medical Center were each scheduled to receive two trays, each with 975 doses, of the vaccine. Sixteen other hospitals, each with 1,000 or more employees, will receive shipments containing one tray.
The remainder of the vaccine, about 25,000 doses, will go to five pharmacies that will distribute them to about 50 smaller hospitals as well as to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.
"Hospitals that received direct shipments will vaccinate their staff while the pharmacies will work with smaller hospitals in the state," Dillaha said. "All of these facilities have prioritized who will receive the vaccine based on staff with the highest risk for exposure to covid-19 patients."
Right after Kwanisai received the first vaccine dose, four more Health Department employees were vaccinated.
They were state Surgeon General Greg Bledsoe, an emergency room physician who is exposed to covid-19 patients and who said he had the disease in October; Kelley Garner, the program manager for the Health Department's Healthcare Acquired Infections program; and Megan DeLong and Rohan Chakravorty, both epidemiologists in the same program.
The Healthcare Acquired Infections program is the one that responds to outbreaks in congregate settings such as prisons and nursing homes.
"We chose five people because there are five doses in a vial, and we didn't want to waste any," Dillaha said.
Neither Dillaha nor Health Secretary Jose Romero received a dose of the vaccine Monday, said spokesman Gavin Lesnick.
Dillaha and Romero will likely be included in a future phase, he added.
Spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said Monday that UAMS is expecting to receive 2,000 doses today and will immediately start administering the vaccine.
"We will vaccinate our front-line caregivers who work with covid-19 patients, those working in our ICU, emergency department and coronavirus testing sites first," Taylor said.
Baptist Health spokeswoman Cara Wade said its first round of vaccine is expected at some point today in Little Rock.
"It varies at each of our facilities," Wade said. "Prioritized in the first round will be the covid units and support departments that work with those units."
Dillaha said the 975 doses allotted for the Health Department will be provided to local Health Unit employees who are at highest risk due to their roles in covid-19 testing and vaccination.
"Those that work in our quarantine/isolation facility will also be vaccinated. The remaining doses from the ADH allocation will go toward vaccinating first responders," Dillaha said. "The hospitals and pharmacies will begin or continue administering the vaccine after they receive their initial shipment."
There is only a remote chance the vaccine could cause a severe allergic reaction, Dillaha said.
"Possible side effects include injection site pain, tiredness, headache, injection site swelling, feeling unwell and swollen lymph nodes," she said.
BY THE NUMBERS
There were 1,355 new covid-19 cases added Monday, 95 cases less than Sunday. It was the second day in the past week that the number of new cases dipped below 2,000.
The number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 dropped by seven, to 1,050. That number included 180 on ventilators, one less than the previous day.
The number of cases in the state that were considered active dropped by 704, to 20,691, on Monday.
"Testing tends to be lower on the weekend, which leads to lower case numbers on Mondays," Dillaha said.
Results from 9,244 polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests were reported on Monday along with 925 antigen tests. So far in December, results from more than 167,964 PCR tests and 32,485 antigen tests have been reported in Arkansas.
The daily testing total of 10,170 was lower than the seven-day average of 11,935 for PCR tests and 2,854 for antigen tests.
PCR tests are more accurate, but antigen tests give quicker results.
The cases added to the state's tallies included 1,233 that were confirmed through PCR tests.
The other 122 were "probable" cases, which include those identified through the less-sensitive antigen tests.
Of the new cases, 114 were attributed to correctional facilities.
There have been 187,057 cases of covid-19 in the state since the beginning of the pandemic. That comprised 160,356 confirmed cases and 26,701 probable ones.
Monday's number of cases was slightly higher than the previous Monday's total of 1,118. The number of active cases, however, increased by 2,634 in a week's time -- from 18,057 on Dec. 7 to 20,691 on Monday.
In the past seven days, a total of 15,015 new covid-19 cases were reported and 277 more Arkansans lost their lives to the virus.
The state's death toll from the pandemic stood at 2,990 on Monday.
HOSPITAL PATIENTS
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data released Monday shows an influx of covid-19 patients to hospitals in the state's northeast region. Health providers report the detailed statistics to the government.
Among Arkansas hospitals, St. Bernards Medical Center and NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital, both in Jonesboro, reported the second- and third-most hospitalizations of adults with confirmed or suspected covid-19 cases over the week ending Thursday.
St. Bernards Medical Center had 568 such patients that week, while NEA Baptist Memorial had 375, the data shows.
Piggott Community Hospital, a 25-bed "critical access" hospital in Clay County, showed more covid-19 hospitalizations than any similar facility -- more than 100 over the most recent week. According to seven-day averages, about 21 of the hospital's beds have been occupied, and roughly two-thirds of those were filled by confirmed or suspected covid-19 patients.
Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock saw the most admissions related to the virus, and nearly half of its staffed ICU beds were filled by a patient with confirmed or suspected covid-19, according to seven-day averages.
Small hospitals in the Delta also showed brisk covid-19 activity, with Chicot Memorial Medical Center in Lake Village and Ashley County Medical Center in Crossett reporting 41 and 39 confirmed or suspected adult cases last week.
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At Drew Memorial Hospital in Monticello, the reported number of confirmed or suspected covid-19 hospitalizations more than doubled compared with the week ending Dec. 3, rising from 72 to 182.
COUNTY DATA
The Health Department reported that the top counties for new cases were Pulaski County with 194; Washington County with 102; Benton County with 95; Faulkner County with 66; and Saline County with 58.
Those counties are also among the ones with the most active cases, with 2,274 in Pulaski County, 1,762 in Washington County, 1,313 in Benton County, 942 in Craighead County and 820 in Saline County.
According to a map graphic released Monday by the Health Department, Jackson County, with a population of about 17,000, showed the highest 14-day rolling average of percent positivity of tests at 24.3%.
Jackson County had administered 19,211 tests since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Health Department data.
Other counties with the highest rates included Bradley County at 23.7%, Polk County at 20.2%, Searcy County at 20.1% and Carroll County at 19.9%.
There were only five counties in the state that had a positivity rate below 10%: Lafayette County at 9.8%, Perry County at 7.8%, Nevada County at 7.7%, Little River County at 7.2% and Hot Spring County at 6.5%.
According to Health Department data, the percent positive was at 8.6% for PCR tests and 18.2% for antigen tests as of Wednesday.
Information for this article was contributed by Kat Stromquist of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.