Citing the decline in Arkansas' daily increases in coronavirus cases and in the number of people hospitalized with the virus, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Tuesday that he won't extend a directive requiring restaurants and bars that serve alcohol to close at 11 p.m.
Without the extension, the directive, first issued Nov. 19, expires today.
"That was important to have through Christmas and New Year's," Hutchinson said. "Our cases and hospitalizations are down, and so I've made that judgment and wanted to give that notice today."
At his weekly news conference on the coronavirus, Hutchinson also said he was told by federal officials earlier in the day that Arkansas, like other states, is getting a 5% increase in the amount of coronavirus vaccine it receives each week because of increased production by one of the manufacturers.
On top of that, he said Walmart will receive about 10,000 doses of vaccine starting Feb. 11 that will be distributed at more than 60 of its stores across the state.
The Walmart doses will be in addition to the state's weekly allocation of vaccine that goes to pharmacies, hospitals and other providers.
For instance, this week the state was allocated enough doses to provide the initial shot of the two-shot regimen to 43,025 people as well as booster shots for people who received their initial dose earlier.
The developments came as Arkansas' count of coronavirus cases rose by 1,510, a bigger increase than the one the day before but 975 cases smaller than the number of new cases reported the previous Tuesday, on Jan. 26.
Compared with a week earlier, however, the number of tests that the state Department of Health reported Tuesday had been performed the previous day also dropped.
The department reported that a total of 7,223 polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests and antigen tests of Arkansans had been performed Monday, down from the 10,489 that it initially reported were performed Jan. 25.
Already at its lowest level since mid-November, the number of Arkansans hospitalized with covid-19 fell by 20, to 869.
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Those patients included 141 who were on ventilators, down from 146 a day earlier.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Health Department, rose by 44, to 4,939.
BAR OWNERS RELIEVED
The Health Department directive had been challenged in court by about two dozen bars in the Fayetteville area whose owners contended it was hurting their business while doing little to prevent the spread of the virus.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen dismissed the lawsuit last week.
B.C. Pickett, a Fayetteville attorney representing the bar owners, said the owners were relieved by Hutchinson's decision and looked forward to "getting back to work and providing safe environments for the citizens of Arkansas to meet, congregate, and drink responsibly."
"While the damage has been done to their businesses we hope that the State sees that this lawsuit wasn't malicious in nature but necessary to stop the government from infringing on their constitutional right to have and run a business without governmental interference," Pickett said in an email.
He said the owners still hadn't decided whether to appeal Griffen's ruling.
"They are more concerned with getting their businesses back up and running and serving their loyal customers," he said.
Hutchinson first announced the restriction a week after forming a "covid-19 winter task force" to study ways to keep hospitals from becoming overwhelmed amid a surge in cases that officials blamed in part on Halloween gatherings.
Originally set to expire Dec. 31, the order was extended as the state's hospitalizations and daily case increases continued rising to new highs.
After peaking in early January, however, hospitalizations and case increases have fallen, which state officials have attributed to the end of the holiday season and better compliance with public health guidance on avoiding infection.
Montine McNulty, chief executive of the Arkansas Hospitality Association, called Hutchinson's announcement "great news" for bars and restaurants, some of which of were missing "a huge part of their income" by having to close early.
She noted that the businesses were already required to limit seating to 66% of their capacity, which she said is "hard on their business model."
"There are businesses literally hanging on," she said.
She said bar owners have been following Health Department rules designed to prevent the virus's spread and that she saw the directive on the closing time as primarily aimed at discouraging holiday get-togethers.
"I've been pleasantly surprised at how diligent [bar owners] talk about their safety measures, and they understand that it is also tied with letting them stay open," she said.
PRODUCTION INCREASE
The 5% increase in the amount of vaccine going to states next week comes on top of a 16% increase in what they received this week compared with last week.
Arkansas' allocation of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has stayed the same, at 18,525 initial doses per week, but its Moderna allocation has increased.
For this week, the state was allocated 24,500 initial doses of the Moderna vaccine, up from 18,600 a week earlier.
Next week, that will go up to 26,800 initial doses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hutchinson said he asked White House officials last week about the reason for the 16% increase and was told that it was due to increased production.
The increase announced Tuesday appears to be for the same reason, he said.
"It does not reflect, as I asked them, did you find it in a closet somewhere?" Hutchinson said.
"It hasn't been hidden. It's just simply improved process and improved manufacturing."
President Joe Biden's coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients confirmed that in a televised briefing Tuesday, saying the increases are "the result of the manufacturing scaling up."
"We hope that we can do all we can, and we will do all we can, to continue that scale-up to make more vaccines available," he said.
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The vaccines are being made available at Walmart stores under the initial phase of a federal program that was first announced in November.
According to a White House fact sheet released Tuesday, the CDC "worked with states to select initial pharmacy partners based on a number of factors including their ability to reach some of the populations most at risk for severe illness from COVID-19."
"Walmart's good at a lot of things, and that's moving inventory out and getting it into the stores, and getting it out to the consumer," Hutchinson said. "We want that same excellence to be done in terms of our vaccines."
Additionally, Col. Robert Ator, who is coordinating Arkansas' vaccine effort, said about 3,000 Moderna vaccine doses became available at three CVS locations starting Tuesday.
Two of the stores are in northwestern Arkansas and one is in Central Arkansas, he said.
Since two doses of the vaccine are given to each person, those will be enough to vaccinate 1,500 people.
"Those vaccinations are starting today," Ator said. "We expect that the first doses will be done by the end of this week."
The doses are among tens of thousands that were initially designated for residents and workers at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, then redirected after it was determined that more doses had been allocated for that effort than were needed.
Health Department spokesman Gavin Lesnick said he didn't have further information on Tuesday about the CVS pharmacies, which were not listed on the Health Department's website along with other vaccine providers.
The pharmacy chain's website said the vaccine "is not yet available at CVS Pharmacy in Arkansas."
A CVS spokeswoman also didn't provide information about the pharmacies in response to a request from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, saying only that the company is working with Arkansas and other states to "provide in-store vaccinations to eligible populations."
DOSES REPORTED
Pharmacies and other providers participating in the vaccine effort being coordinated by the state reported having received 486,500 doses of vaccines as of Tuesday morning, an increase of 15,900 doses from the numbers as of a day earlier.
They reported having administered 301,291 of those, up 7,721 from the number a day earlier.
In addition, Walgreens and CVS reported administering 17,117 doses, an increase of 174 from the total a day earlier.
The two pharmacy chains were initially allocated 49,400 doses of the Moderna vaccine for residents and workers in Arkansas' long-term care facilities as part of a federal program.
Walgreens began making some of its surplus doses available to eligible members of the public last week.
The number of doses reported to have been delivered and administered includes some booster shots for people who already received their initial dose.
The actual number of shots given is higher than the Health Department's figures because providers have three days to report the doses they administer.
The CDC reported that 251,841 Arkansans, or 8.4% of the state's population, had received at least one dose of vaccine.
That included 59,903, or about 2% of the state's population, who had received both doses.
Arkansas ranked 13th among the states and District of Columbia in the percentage of residents who had received at least one dose and 21st in the percentage who had received both doses.
Nationally, 7.7% of people had received at least one dose, and 1.8% had received both doses.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs released data Tuesday showing that 6,216 Arkansans had received at least one dose through the veterans health care system as of Tuesday and that 927 had received both doses.
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INSTRUCTIONAL SHIFTS
Despite the decline in daily statewide case increases, virus concerns continue to prompt some school districts to temporarily shift to all-virtual instruction.
Sylvan Hills High School and Daisy Bates Elementary School in the Pulaski County Special School District are going to remote instruction for the rest of this week, district leaders announced Tuesday.
The switch at Sylvan Hills High and Bates Elementary comes on the heels of Harris and College Station elementary schools moving to remote instruction for the week, which had been announced Monday.
All teachers will communicate with students through the Schoology learning management system. All certified and classified staff members who are not on quarantine are to report to their schools each day this week. Teachers will conduct virtual instruction from their classrooms.
District administrators will meet Friday to determine if the pivot needs to be extended.
The Little Rock School District also announced Tuesday evening that Terry Elementary will shift to virtual instruction through Friday after an employee tested positive and seven other employees and 12 students were required to quarantine.
"Teachers will work with students remotely tomorrow and Thursday while the building is deep cleaned/sanitized," the district said in an announcement.
Teachers will return to campus Friday, and in-person classes will resume Monday, it said.
Earlier Tuesday, the district reported that 65 students and employees had been required to quarantine and 12 others had tested positive in the 24 hours between 3 p.m. Monday and 3 p.m. Tuesday. The district posts the numbers daily.
ACTIVE CASES FALL
The cases that were added to Arkansas' statewide tallies on Tuesday included 793 that were confirmed through PCR tests.
The other 717 were "probable" cases, which include those identified through less-sensitive antigen tests.
The state's cumulative count of cases rose to 298,004.
That comprised 237,333 confirmed cases and 60,671 probable ones.
The number of cases that were considered active fell by 334, to 16,331, as 1,800 Arkansans were newly classified as having recovered.
Pulaski County had the largest number of new cases, 247, followed by Benton County, which had 127; Washington County, which had 85; Faulkner County, which had 72; and Saline County, which had 68.
Among prison and jail inmates, the Health Department's count of cases rose by 39.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said the number of cases among inmates rose by two each at the Tucker Unit in Jefferson County and the Central Arkansas Community Correction Center in Little Rock.
Three cases at the Little Rock lockup and two at the Tucker Unit were active as of Tuesday, she said.
Statewide, the average number of cases added to the state's tallies each day over a rolling seven-day period fell by 139, to 1,545.
The state's death toll rose by 34, to 3,971, among confirmed cases and by 10, to 968, among probable cases.
The number of Arkansans who have ever been hospitalized with the virus rose by 79, to 13,730.
The number who have ever been on a ventilator rose by seven, to 1,433.
Information for this article was contributed by Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.