Arkansas' number of coronavirus cases rose Thursday by 1,124 -- the third-highest one-day increase since the start of the pandemic.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the state Department of Health, rose by 15, to 1,384.
"I never like the increase in cases," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement.
But he said he was encouraged by other numbers -- a drop in the number of people hospitalized and a decline in active cases at kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools and higher-education institutions.
"There were over 12,000 [polymerase chain reaction] and antigen tests yesterday, which is a record for our daily reporting," the Republican governor added.
[CORONAVIRUS: Click here for our complete coverage » arkansasonline.com/coronavirus]
"This high testing volume is vital to our efforts to slow the spread of this virus. Remember, we all have to be disciplined and serious about covid-19."
The increase in cases included 921 that were confirmed through polymerase chain reaction, or PCR tests.
The other 203 were "probable" cases, which include those identified through less-sensitive antigen tests.
"We're continuing to see a fair amount of community spread, and it's been a larger number of counties" that have 20 or more new cases, state Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said.
She said the virus continues to spread at church events, parties and other gatherings where participants aren't taking precautions such as wearing masks and keeping a safe distance from one another.
"The typical scenario is that someone's infected, they don't know they're infected, and they go to an event and other people at the event become infected and develop disease," she said.
Despite the 39 patients admitted to hospitals in the state with covid-19, the number hospitalized as of Thursday fell by five, to 485, as others were discharged or died.
The number of coronavirus patients who were on ventilators fell by one, to 92, while the number who have ever been on ventilators rose by two, to 678.
The number of Arkansans who have ever been hospitalized with the virus rose to 5,445.
The state's cumulative tally of cases rose to 84,821.
That comprised 81,531 confirmed cases and 3,290 probable ones.
The number of confirmed or probable cases that were considered to be active rose by 235, to 7,244, as 874 Arkansans were newly classified as having recovered.
Despite the different classifications, the Health Department has said it treats confirmed and probable cases the same for the purposes of its contact-tracing efforts.
That includes requiring people whose results are positive from either type of test to isolate themselves, and those they may have infected to quarantine.
TESTS SET RECORD
The Health Department reported that 11,244 PCR tests and 1,154 antigen tests, which are typically quicker but less sensitive, were performed Wednesday -- a combined total of 12,398 tests.
[Interactive Arkansas map not showing up above? Click here to see it: arkansasonline.com/arvirus]
Hutchinson spokesman Katie Beck said the previous record for a daily testing total, as reported in the state's coronavirus briefings, was the 11,778 PCR and antigen tests conducted on Sept. 17 that had been reported to the state as of a day later.
But Dillaha said the state's testing numbers may be skewed a bit by the requirement that took effect last month for nursing homes to test all of their employees as often as twice a week.
"That's going to drive the testing numbers up, but they'll be testing the same population over and over again," Dillaha said.
The state's number of confirmed and probable virus cases rose by 118 in Washington County, 103 in Pulaski County, 68 in Benton County, 67 in Saline County, 48 in Craighead County and 44 in Sebastian County.
Pulaski County continued to have the highest active case total, 708, followed by Washington County, which had 520, and Jefferson County, which had 514.
Among prison and jail inmates, the state's count of cases rose by 28. Such increases can reflect new cases or ones that were added earlier but not immediately classified as coming from a jail or prison.
Cases among inmates are also sometimes added several days after a test is conducted, after information from laboratory reports is entered into a state database.
The state Department of Corrections reported that a prisoner from the Maximum Security Unit in Jefferson County died Thursday at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff, becoming the state's 43rd inmate to die from the virus.
The inmate was in his early 60s and serving a life sentence for capital murder, the department reported.
[Interactive tables not showing up above? Click here to see them: arkansasonline.com/schools]
Over a rolling seven-day period, the average number of confirmed and probable cases added to the state's tallies each day rose by five, to 825.
The state's highest one-day increase in confirmed or probable cases was the 1,180 that were added on Sept. 11, followed by an increase of 1,174 on Sept. 4.
INSTRUCTIONAL SHIFTS
Meanwhile, schools in Fordyce and Newport on Thursday became the latest to shift some of their classes to all-virtual instruction in response to coronavirus cases.
In a letter posted to the Fordyce School District's Facebook page Wednesday, Superintendent Judy Hubbell said an eighth-grade student-athlete had tested positive, prompting the district to quarantine the entire eighth- and ninth-grade football team.
"Out of an abundance of caution, I have made the decision to pivot our 7th- and 8th-graders to distance learning" for Thursday through Monday, Hubbell said in the letter.
She said she would evaluate the situation Monday and post a notice with "further instructions."
In a message on the Newport School District's website, Superintendent Brett Bunch said classes for sixth-graders would be online-only Thursday and today in response to virus cases.
"This is a precautionary measure, if your child was a close contact with the person that tested positive you will be contacted with further instructions about quarantine," Bunch said.
He said an announcement will be made Sunday on when in-classroom instruction will return.
In its daily covid-19 report, covering activity in the 24 hours ending at 3 p.m. Thursday, the Little Rock School District reported that 10 students and one employee had tested positive for the virus.
That included seven students and one employee at Central High School, which shifted to online instruction Thursday.
The district reported that 78 students and five employees at the school had been required to quarantine.
At other schools within the district, an additional three students had tested positive, and 11 students and four employees had been required to quarantine.
Bobby G. Lester Elementary School of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District announced Thursday that one faculty member tested positive, causing two staff members and nine students to be quarantined.
TEACHER SURVEY
To document ongoing safety concerns among teachers, the Arkansas Education Association announced that it has started an online survey.
Carol Fleming, president of the teacher union, said since schools opened in August, the group has received "troubling" reports of unsafe working conditions from teachers, ranging from lack of social distancing to inconsistent mask policies on campuses and inadequate sanitizing.
"We must take these concerns seriously, and district officials must address them to slow the spread of this deadly virus," the union said in a statement Thursday.
Fleming said the data collected over the next week from the anonymous survey would be used to make recommendations to state officials.
Before the beginning of school in August, the union advocated for virtual instruction only, opposing a state mandate requiring schools to offer face-to-face instruction. The union called that requirement "unsafe."
"There are a lot of fears and uncertainties that individuals are facing in regards to this virus," Fleming said in a phone interview Thursday.
"Now that educators have been in school for five weeks in this new environment with covid, we need to know how things are going for them."
In an emailed statement, Education Secretary Johnny Key said it was "very disappointing to read the assertions made" by the teachers organization.
"These inaccuracies, especially the misrepresentation of my remarks from the governor's press briefing, only add further confusion to an already difficult time," Key said.
"I do hope their survey generates positive ideas for solutions because the only solution the union seems to have now is shutting down onsite learning, and we don't need a repeat of last spring."
He added: "At the end of the day, every Arkansas student deserves and is entitled to a quality education. I have been extremely humbled by the countless educators around this great state who have not only fulfilled their obligation as educators, they have done it with a true servant's heart."
"Inaccurate information disseminated by a few with the intent to cause further confusion and division not only inhibits collaboration, frankly, it hurts students," Key said. "Our students deserve so much more."
During the governor's weekly coronavirus briefing Tuesday, Key said more than 30 schools had modifications in place, such as shifting some or all classes to online-only, in response to coronavirus cases.
He said an additional 93 changes that had been made during the school year were no longer in place.
SUPPLIES ARRIVE
At the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, rapid covid-19 testing hasn't taken off despite a Sept. 15 announcement that state health officials had acquired supplies to conduct 12,000 antigen tests using BD Veritor equipment, a university spokesman said.
But that could change soon.
Zac Brown, a spokesman for UA's Pat Walker Health Center, said Abbott Rapid ID PCR test kits arrived at the university Thursday afternoon.
"Not sure as to how many specifically, but it was a very adequate amount that will let us start using the machines consistently starting sometime next week," Brown said in an email.
For on-campus tests done now at UA, results are "returned typically in a day or two" from labs that process the samples, Brown said, adding that at times the wait can be three days.
Anyone awaiting test results is instructed to quarantine until test results arrive, Brown said.
Abbott, the manufacturer of the rapid test machines, says on its website that results are available in 13 minutes or less.
Brown said the plan is to use the Abbot ID testing equipment on campus community members who show symptoms.
Nine colleges in the state now have Abbott instruments procured via the state Division of Higher Education, a division spokeswoman said Thursday. They are: UA-Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, John Brown University, Arkansas Tech University, the University of Central Arkansas, Henderson State University, Arkansas State University, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
"We purchased units for those institutions with certified labs" using money allocated through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, state Division of Higher Education spokeswoman Alisha Lewis said in an email. Lewis said "just under 120,000" test kits also have been procured.
Maria Markham, director of the Higher Education Division, said the amount of test kits is based on student populations.
"Should a campus need additional tests, we will either shift resources as needed or procure more tests from Abbott," Markham said, adding that the Higher Education Division will work with the Health Department, which has the contract with Abbott.
Brown said the Health Department previously provided about 30 test kits for the BD Veritor equipment. But Health Department authorities never sent additional supplies despite the Sept. 15 announcement from Hutchinson that higher education and K-12 schools "are the first priorities that we have for these antigen tests that we have obtained."
In mid-September, UA-Fayetteville reported having more than 330 active cases, a number that has steadily declined since then. The university drops a case from its active count 10 days after a positive test result, though the virus can sicken people for longer.
Health Department spokeswoman Danyelle McNeill said health officials did not receive a request from UA-Fayetteville for additional test kits for the BD Veritor equipment.
Brown, the UA spokesman, said "we were never informed initially that we needed to request additional kits -- only that more would be made available to us."
In recent days, however, it's been the lack of demand for testing that's been called out as a concern by UA Chancellor Joe Steinmetz.
"I want to encourage you to consider getting tested, especially if you have any reason to believe you may have been exposed to someone who is positive," Steinmetz said in a message to the campus Wednesday. "Currently, we have the capacity to do far more testing than we are doing, with virtually no wait times."
Steinmetz said there are "anecdotal stories that people are still resistant to being tested."
"We've seen recent closures of bars, restaurants and offices in Fayetteville due to employees testing positive, so we have reason to be concerned," Steinmetz said.
For the seven-day period that ended Sunday, a total of 1,095 on-campus tests were done, a number that includes tests coordinated by UA's athletic department for students being tested multiple times each week as part of protocols established by the Southeastern Conference.
SCHOOL REPORTS
According to biweekly reports from the Health Department, the number of public school students and employees who have tested positive since June 15 rose by 354, to 4,834, between Monday and Thursday.
The total as of Thursday included at least 3,563 students and 1,234 employees.
Those don't equal the total number of cases because of "unavailable data," according to the reports.
The number of cases that were active fell by 19, to 698.
The Springdale School District continued to have the most active cases, 35, followed by the Little Rock district, which had 31, and the Magnolia School District, which had 27.
At colleges and universities, the number of cases among students and employees rose by 225, to 4,257 from Monday to Thursday.
The number of those cases that were active fell by 52, to 438.
UA-Fayetteville was still listed as having the highest number of active cases, although its number fell from 116 Monday to 89 Thursday.
Arkansas Tech in Russellville had the next-highest active case total, 51, followed by UCA in Conway, which had 43.
LATEST DEATHS
All 15 deaths that were added to the state's count were of confirmed cases, raising the number of deaths among such cases to 1,238.
The state's count of virus deaths also includes 146 among probable cases.
Dillaha said all of the deaths that were added to the state's total Thursday occurred in September.
Six were among residents at the Union County-owned Hudson Memorial Nursing Home in El Dorado and happened "over a short period" of time, she said.
A Health Department report listed 53 residents at the home as having tested positive as of Wednesday.
The state's count of virus deaths rose by six in Union County and one each in Arkansas, Ashley, Boone, Craighead, Greene, Jefferson, Phillips, Pulaski and Yell counties.
The death toll rose by one, to 37, among Arkansans age 35-44; by one, to 89, among those age 45-54; by one, to 206, among those age 55-64; and by 12 to 1,028 among those age 65 or older.
HOURS EXTENDED
Also Thursday, the Health Department announced that its local health units around the state will shift their hours on Tuesdays to make flu shots and covid-19 tests available after normal business hours.
The units will be open on those days from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. instead of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the department announced.
Flu shots are available on a walk-in basis, but people should call ahead to make an appointment for the covid-19 tests, the department said.
Both are available at no charge to the patient, although the department will charge the patients' health insurance plan if they have one.
Addresses and phone numbers for the units can be found by visiting the department's website at: healthy.arkansas.gov/health-units.
