1,337 increase in virus cases new Arkansas high

Two LRSD schools among those shifting to all-virtual

Riley Hunt, a University of Arkansas freshman from Greenville, Ohio, gets a coronavirus test Friday, Oct. 23, 2020, from Erica Nash, a licensed practical nurse with Arkansas Foundation of Medical Care and the state Department of Health inside the Garland Avenue parking garage on the Fayetteville campus. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)
Riley Hunt, a University of Arkansas freshman from Greenville, Ohio, gets a coronavirus test Friday, Oct. 23, 2020, from Erica Nash, a licensed practical nurse with Arkansas Foundation of Medical Care and the state Department of Health inside the Garland Avenue parking garage on the Fayetteville campus. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)

Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases rose Friday by 1,337 -- the largest one-day increase since the start of the pandemic and the first one that has topped 1,300.

The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the state Department of Health, rose by 10, to 1,782.

"Today we see new cases significantly higher than last Friday," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a news release.

"The weekly trend shows we are growing in our cases toward the end of the week, and this growth reflects the activities from the previous weekend. Next week's number of new cases will be determined by how careful we all are over this coming weekend. Let's avoid those gatherings where groups are not adhering to social distancing and mask wearing."

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After falling for two days, the number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19 rose by 12, to 624 -- still short of the peak of 637 hospitalized patients as of Tuesday.

The patients Friday included 99 who were on ventilators, up from 96 a day earlier.

With Friday's spike in cases, the state has set a record for a one-day case increase every week for the past three weeks.

"It's disturbing that we're having a record high," state Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha said. "We are definitely moving in the wrong direction."

She said the state "continues to have high levels of community spread, especially in Northeast Arkansas."

"People are letting their guards down, and this virus is taking advantage of them," Dillaha said.

Earlier this month, the Health Department presented Hutchinson with options for curbing the spread of the virus that ranged from holding more frequent news conferences, closing bars and restaurants to on-site service, and barring gatherings of more than 10 people.

Asked Friday if he planned to implement any of those measures in response to the spike in cases, Hutchinson said the state is "in the process of deploying rapid testing (antigen) to some of the high-count areas of our state as well as continuing to improve the effectiveness of our contact tracing work."

"In terms of our efforts to promote compliance with public health guidelines, we are continuing to increase our public awareness campaign," the Republican governor said in a statement.

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"I expect increased emphasis on this as recommended by the Department of Health team. I expect to address these plans more fully and publicly next Tuesday."

Dillaha on Friday called on businesses and community leaders to enforce rules on wearing masks and maintaining distance between people.

"I encourage citizens in Arkansas to avoid places where there are large groups of people that are not doing the social distancing or wearing cloth face coverings," she added.

"They should avoid entering those businesses or participating in the event if they discover upon arrival that those mandates are not being followed."

On Tuesday, Hutchinson announced that he would limit his meetings and public appearances after a person he was in a meeting with on Oct. 16 tested positive for the virus.

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Hutchinson spokeswoman Katie Beck said Hutchinson was given an antigen test and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test Friday, and both were negative.

Hutchinson also tested negative for the virus Monday and Wednesday.

Health Secretary Jose Romero said this week that Hutchinson would be offered antigen and PCR testing again Monday and that "additional testing will be determined at that point."

ACTIVE CASES RECORD

The increase in the state's count of cases Friday included 1,047 that were confirmed through PCR tests.

The other 290 were "probable" cases, which include those identified through less-sensitive antigen tests.

The state's cumulative tally of confirmed and probable cases rose to 104,135.

That comprised 97,339 confirmed cases and 6,796 probable ones.

The number of cases that were considered active rose to a record, 9,129, as 927 Arkansans were newly classified as having recovered.

The record increase in cases Friday broke a pattern over the past few weeks when the state's daily increase in cases has climbed to a peak on Thursdays before tapering off into the weekend.

In a statement Thursday, Hutchinson indicated that he expected that pattern to continue this week after the state's case count rose by 1,202 that day.

At that point, that was just the third time the state's increase in cases had topped 1,200 in a single day.

"If the trend continues similar to last week, then we will see around 1,000 new cases [Friday]," Hutchinson said Thursday.

The previous record for a one-day increase was a jump of 1,278 cases on Oct. 15.

The United States as a whole also set a record for a one-day increase in cases Friday, with the number topping 80,000 for the first time, according to The Washington Post.

Arkansas' average daily increase in cases over a rolling seven-day period on Friday also climbed to a record, 942, from 896 as of a day earlier.

INSTRUCTIONAL SHIFTS

Meanwhile, the Little Rock School District announced Friday that two of its schools would shift to virtual instruction next week as it announced its "most challenging day related to covid-19 results."







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In the 24-hour period ending at 3 p.m. Friday, the district had seven students and four employees test positive for the virus, with an additional 97 students and 41 employees required to quarantine after coming in contact with someone who tested positive.

"These high numbers reinforce the need for our entire community to continue to be disciplined and proactive in our approach to this virus," the district said on its website.

"It is critical that we all continue to wear masks, keep our social distance and practice good hand washing habits, both in our school environment and away from the district in social settings."

At Pulaski Heights Middle School, one of the schools that will shift to virtual instruction, three students tested positive and 59 others were required to quarantine, according to the district's daily report.

Thirteen employees at the school were also required to quarantine.

"We will use Monday to deep clean and sanitize the building," Principal Darryl Powell said in a Facebook post.

Little Rock West High School of Innovation, the other school that will shift to remote learning, learned Friday of a faculty member who tested positive, Principal Karen Heatherly said on Facebook.

"The staff member is in isolation, and five students and five other staff members, who potentially came into contact with the impacted staff member are in quarantine," Heatherly said.

Virtual instruction at both schools was scheduled to continue through at least the end of next week.

At Hall High School, where one student tested positive and 10 others were quarantined, a football game against Jacksonville High School that had been scheduled for Friday night was canceled.

Three staff members at Hall High were also placed under quarantine.

In northeastern Arkansas, the Manila School District is shifting to remote learning for all students, except pre-kindergartners, beginning Monday until the end of next week.

The district in Mississippi County reported "a dramatic increase" in quarantines and positive cases to the state Department of Education, including 15 positive cases, five quarantined teachers and 140 quarantined students.

In neighboring Poinsett County, Tyronza Elementary School shifted to virtual instruction Friday in response to "a high number of staff being quarantined under [Health Department] guidance and requirements," according to the East Poinsett County School District's Facebook page.

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The district reported to the Education Department that it had 20 faculty members and 28 students quarantined.

Students will return to on-site instruction Nov. 6, the district said.

Genoa Central Elementary School in Texarkana announced on its Facebook page Friday that kindergarten students have moved to remote learning until Nov. 6.

"All Genoa Central kindergarten is in quarantine due to close contact" with someone who tested positive, said the school, which has about 80 kindergartners.

The Jacksonville North Pulaski School District said it learned Thursday that a staff member at at Murrell Taylor Elementary School had tested positive, causing two other employees and 13 students to have to quarantine.

PRISON OUTBREAKS

The state's count of confirmed or probable cases rose Friday by 116 in Pulaski County, 89 in Washington County, 75 in Benton County, 72 in Craighead County, 61 in Garland County, 61 in Miller County and 54 in Greene County.

Arkansans age 18-24, who make up less than 10% of the state's population, accounted for 12%, of the cases.

The 165 cases that were added among that age group translated to a rate of 57 cases per 100,000 residents.

The rate per 100,000 residents was 24 for children; 50 for Arkansans age 25-44; 47 for those age 45-64; and 55 for those 65 and older.

Among prison and jail inmates, the state's count of cases rose by 19.

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.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said the number of cases among inmates rose Friday by eight, to 29, at the Texarkana Regional Correction Center; by seven, to 711, at the Varner Unit in Lincoln County; by six, to 148, at the McPherson Unit in Newport; by three, to 71, at the Central Arkansas Community Correction Center in Little Rock; and by one, to 418 at the Wrightsville Unit.

The number of cases at those prisons that were active ranged from 114 at the Varner Unit to just three at the lockup in Little Rock.

The Corrections Department also said Friday that a prisoner from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock had become the state's 48th inmate to die of the virus.

The inmate, who was in his early 60s and serving a 40-year sentence for first-degree murder, died Friday at the White River Health System Grasse Memorial Clinic in Calico Rock while undergoing treatment for covid-19 related symptoms, the department said.

The state's count of virus deaths rose by two each in Baxter and Independence counties, and by one each in Arkansas, Boone, Carroll, Hot Spring, Jefferson, Poinsett and Pulaski counties.

The Health Department also subtracted one death from its count of virus deaths in Lonoke County, lowering the official death toll there to 25.

The state's count of virus deaths rose by one, to 109, among Arkansans age 45-54; by one to 256, among those age 55-64; and by eight, to 1,344 among those age 65 and older.

Among nursing home and assisted living facility residents, the death toll rose by seven, to 666.

COLLEGE CASES

The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, reported 15 new cases since its last update Wednesday.

The number of cases that were active rose from 23 to 30, with the number Friday including 25 students.

In its daily update, Arkansas State University in Jonesboro reported 42 active cases, a slight dip from the 45 it reported Thursday. Twenty-one of those cases are among students living off campus, and nine of the cases are among on-campus students, ASU reported.

The University of Arkansas, Fort Smith, reported 27 active cases Friday with 14 new cases this week, nearly double the new positive cases reported the week before.

As of Friday morning, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, reported eight positive cases on campus, bring its cumulative total since March to 90.

Henderson State University in Arkadelphia reported one positive and 15 pending student cases Friday.

The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff reported two new positive cases this week, bringing its cumulative total since the beginning of September to 133.

ANTIBODY STUDY

Also Friday, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences said early results from an ongoing study indicated that 3.5% of Arkansans had been infected with the coronavirus by this summer.

The estimate comes from tests conducted on blood samples drawn from 1,220 Arkansans in July and August.

The tests look for antibodies developed in response to an infection that occurred at some point in the past.

The samples were meant to be representative of the state's population as a whole, indicating that about 106,000 Arkansans had been infected.

By contrast, the state's count of infections that had been diagnosed through tests during those months ranged from 21,197 as of July 1 to 61,224 as of Aug. 31.

Thousands more infections went undetected, the UAMS study indicates.

"Increasingly we're seeing that the percentage of asymptomatic infection is fairly high, meaning social distancing is still very important and wearing masks is still very important," said Laura James, director of UAMS' Translational Research Institute.

The study found that 17.8% of the 73 Hispanics whose blood was tested had been infected.

That compared to a rate of 4.19% among Blacks and 1.27% among whites.

While scientists are still studying the degree to which people who have been infected may have immunity to being infected in the future, the data shows that, at a minimum, the vast majority of Arkansans are still susceptible to the virus.

"We're not finding 50, 60, 70% of the people infected, so we're not nearing that supposed herd immunity mark, whatever that number may turn out to be," said Karl Boehme, an associate professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at UAMS' College of Medicine whose laboratory was involved in the testing.

The estimate for the overall Arkansas population had a confidence interval of 2.56% to 4.72%, David Robinson, a spokesman for the Translational Research Institute, said in an email.

James "said according to the statistician that is a fairly narrow or tight confidence interval, which is our way of saying that data is believable," Robinson said.

The antibody study is being supported by more than $3 million in federal coronavirus relief funds allocated by the state.

The results released Friday came from blood samples drawn from patients who visited UAMS clinics around the state for reasons other than covid-19.

The project will also involve analyzing a second set of samples collected last month and this month and a third set drawn in November and December, James said.

Roxana Hutchcroft, a nurse with Arkansas Foundation of Medical Care and the state Health Department, collects supplies Friday before administering a covid-19 test Friday at the new testing site inside the Garland Avenue parking garage on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)
Roxana Hutchcroft, a nurse with Arkansas Foundation of Medical Care and the state Health Department, collects supplies Friday before administering a covid-19 test Friday at the new testing site inside the Garland Avenue parking garage on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)

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Coronavirus daily updates and cumulative covid-19 cases in Arkansas

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