Arkansas reached 27,822 active cases of covid-19 Saturday, a new high and a mark a state health official said is likely a harbinger of higher numbers of hospitalizations in coming days.
The state surpassed its previous record of patients hospitalized with covid-19, reporting 1,346 on Saturday. That's four more than the previous high, and Arkansas has been breaking hospitalization records nearly every day since Dec. 28.
Of those hospitalized, 223 were on ventilators.
The number of deaths has exceeded 4,000. Forty-four more deaths were reported Saturday, raising the total to 4,010.
"That's of concern because that's a record," state Epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Dillaha said of the number of active cases. "That would be the number of people who are infectious at this point in time. That's at a record-high level, and you know the cases precede the hospitalizations in terms of numbers."
The state also distributed 8,672 more doses of the covid-19 vaccine. Overall, Arkansas has distributed 36.9% of the stock it has received.
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A spike in active cases usually results in a spike in hospitalizations about a week later, Dillaha said. Patients' cases are no longer counted as active 10 days after they develop symptoms or test positive, unless they are hospitalized or have compromised immune systems.
Arkansas hospitals have reported strains on their abilities to care for patients, including in bed availability and staffing. Of 8,880 total hospital beds, 2,012 were available Saturday, said Meg Mirivel, a Health Department spokeswoman.
At the end of December, Dr. Cam Patterson, the University of Arkansas for the Medical Sciences chancellor, published a tweet thread about the stress at the hospital.
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He said at the time that UAMS would make adjustments to accommodate more covid-19 patients. Among measures mentioned was expanding the emergency department to an adjacent parking deck for "triage & other purposes."
Two facilities -- one in Little Rock and the other in Van Buren -- will be renovated to house up to 124 virus patients if hospitals run out of room, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced last month. About 16 more intensive care unit beds are scheduled to be ready at Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock on Monday, a spokeswoman said previously.
Dillaha said she's heard most often about problems with hospital staffing.
"All the hospitals are working to make sure that they can optimize their bed capacity, and what I'm hearing overall is that the most important factor that they're having to address is personnel to staff the beds and care for the patients that are admitted to them," Dillaha said.
Many staff members have had to quarantine because of exposure to covid-19 or because they've gotten sick. Others have had to care for sick family members. And historically, many of the nurses working in Arkansas' hospitals are traveling nurses who receive temporary assignments based on need.
Because other states are struggling with the same problems, Arkansas has to compete for those nurses, Dillaha said.
"Now that other states are having high numbers of hospital admissions, as well, the competition for that finite resource is very keen," she said. "It's a very tight competition among states for the same workers."
Nationally, Arkansas had the 10th-most new cases per 100,000 people on average over the past seven days, with 91.9, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was posted Saturday. Rhode Island had the most, with 130.3.
About 6.7 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to the CDC.
The additional vaccine distribution in Arkansas raised the total number of doses given to 74,663, or about 2.4% of the total population. The state is in the first portion of a three-part plan to vaccinate primarily high-priority workers and those most at risk of serious illness or death from the virus.
The first part of the plan includes workers and staff members at long-term-care facilities, health care workers, first responders and some prison workers.
"We know there have been some big vaccination efforts this weekend," Dillaha said.
There are about 180,000 people included in the first phase of the vaccination plan, Hutchinson said previously.
The state is coordinating with private pharmacies to distribute the vaccinations to the designated groups and general public. More information about the plan is to be released Friday, Hutchinson said last week during his weekly news briefing.
The state has received 202,400 doses of the vaccine, up 12,300 from Friday.
"Our testing continues to be high, and vaccine distribution allows us to continue fighting this virus across the state," Hutchinson said in his tweet announcing the new numbers. "Continue to do your part over the weekend."
Information for this article was contributed by Andy Davis of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.