The spread of the coronavirus in Arkansas showed signs of picking up again on Thursday as the count of cases rose by 3,106 -- the second daily increase in a row that was bigger than the one a week earlier.
The state death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by 55 for the second-straight day.
"The increase in new cases is disappointing & a reminder that we cannot let up in following the public health guidelines," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement.
"Our vaccines are getting into the arms of Arkansans, but remember, we are totally dependent upon the supply that comes from manufacturers. Right now it is limited."
Despite the uptick in cases, the number of coronavirus patients on ventilators in Arkansas dropped below 200 on Thursday for the first time in more than two weeks, while the number of virus hospitalizations fell for the second-straight day.
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But state Epidemiologist Jennifer Dillaha noted, "If the trend in cases is up again, then I imagine our hospitalizations will trend up again as well in a few days."
She said it typically takes about a week after testing positive for someone to become sick enough to require hospitalization.
The previous Thursday, Jan. 14, state cases rose by 2,491.
After falling from a peak of 3,086 as of Jan. 10, the average number of cases added to state tallies each day over a rolling seven-day period rose Thursday by 88, to 2,101.
That was the second day in a row the average increase had risen after falling the previous four days.
"I am so disappointed to see that," Dillaha said of Thursday's case increase. "I was hoping we would be on a sustained downward trend, but obviously not."
She said she didn't know the reason for the uptick but noted that Benton County had a "high number" of new cases, 360, the most out of the state's 75 counties.
"I don't know what's behind that," she said.
Health Department spokesman Gavin Lesnick said 50 of the 55 deaths reported Thursday happened within the past month.
Of the others, one occurred in early November, three were in early December and one was in mid-December, he said.
The number of virus patients on ventilators dropped Thursday by 17, to 195. That was the first time the count had been below 200 since Jan. 3.
After dropping to its lowest level of the year so far on Wednesday, the number of state patients hospitalized fell again Thursday. It dipped by 19, to 1,160, its lowest level since Dec. 28.
The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units fell by 18, to 370, its lowest level since Dec. 27.
But after falling for four days, the number of cases that were considered active rose Thursday by 227, to 20,618, as 2,824 Arkansans were newly classified as having recovered.
VACCINATIONS CONTINUE
The uptick in cases occurred as providers continued administering vaccines to Arkansans age 70 and older and to employees of elementary and secondary schools, higher-education institutions and day care centers, all of which became officially eligible for the shots this week.
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The Baptist Health system as of Thursday had administered 1,400 doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech to Arkansans age 70 and older at its hospitals in Little Rock, North Little Rock and Fort Smith, spokeswoman Cara Wade said.
She said the system expected to administer 600 more by the end of the week.
Patients can make an appointment for the shots through an online MyChart account. Information on registering for an account is available on the health system's website at baptist-health.com/covid-19-vaccine.
The available appointment slots for this week are full, Wade said in an email.
"When we receive more vaccine we will open more appointments," she said.
The Arkansans who became eligible for shots fall under Phase 1-B of the vaccination plan.
Front-line "essential workers," such as factory and grocery workers, also fall under Phase 1-B but won't be eligible for shots until later.
With the state receiving fewer than 40,000 doses a week to provide the first doses, "it could be up until March" at some pharmacies before an eligible Arkansan who doesn't already have one would be able to get an appointment, John Vinson, chief executive of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, said.
"Just to put that in perspective, I've heard of patients who can't get an appointment until May, and it sounds awful," Vinson said.
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But he said once the pharmacy starts going through its waiting list, it may discover some people with appointments have already been vaccinated somewhere else, despite pleas by state officials for people not to put their names on more than one waiting list.
"The reality is, even though you may get the story that you may be on the list for March, April or May, you may in reality, when it's all said and done, be able to get vaccinated by [the end of] February," he said.
He said some pharmacies also are reserving a certain number of appointments that they will open up a week at a time, once they know how much vaccine they'll be getting.
"We're trying to perfect that process, but it's really hard with the limited amount of vaccine we have, when you're getting [enough doses for] 1% of the population of the state and only enough vaccine for 1 in 12 people that are eligible per week, it's difficult," he said.
He said he's also urging pharmacies to use all of the doses earmarked for initial shots right away and not reserve them to provide booster shots later.
Doses designated for the booster shots are shipped two weeks after the initial doses.
"We're telling them to use 100% of all new primary vaccine that comes in that's supposed to be used for first doses because the greater percentage of that we use, the more likely our state is to get an increase in percentage of allocation," Vinson said.
Currently states' allocations are based on their populations, but then-Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said last week that the federal government would begin basing them on states' populations of adults 65 and older and the pace of their vaccinations.
The Biden administration hadn't announced as of Thursday whether it would adopt that approach, however.
DOSES REPORTED
Since the first shipments of the vaccines began arriving last month, pharmacies and other providers in the state had received 330,750 doses as of Thursday morning, of which at least 179,127 had been administered.
The number of shots that had been given was up by 14,428 from a day earlier.
In addition, Walgreens and CVS reported administering 6,978 of the 49,400 doses they were allocated for residents and workers at long-term care facilities in Arkansas under a federal program.
That was an increase of 162 doses from what the national pharmacy chains reported having administered as of Wednesday.
The doses allocated and administered include some booster shots for people who received their first shots of the two-dose regimens earlier.
The actual number administered is higher than the Health Department's figures because providers have three days to report the information.
PRISON OUTBREAKS
The cases added to Arkansas' totals on Thursday included 1,956 that were confirmed through polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests.
The other 1,150 were "probable" cases, which include those identified through less-sensitive antigen tests.
The state's cumulative count of cases rose to 279,220.
That comprised 224,243 confirmed cases and 54,977 probable ones.
After Benton County, Pulaski County had the largest number of new cases, 344, followed by Washington County, which had 249; Sebastian County, which had 217; and Garland County, which had 135.
Among prison and jail inmates, cases rose by nine.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said the number of cases among inmates rose by 12, to 68 at the Northwest Arkansas Work Release Center in Springdale.
The Barbara Ester Unit in Pine Bluff, the Ouachita River Unit in Malvern and the Southwest Arkansas Community Correction Center in Texarkana each had two new cases.
The Tucker Unit in Jefferson County and the Varner Unit in Lincoln County each had one new case.
Of those prisons, the Texarkana lockup had the largest number of cases that were active, 42, followed by the Springdale facility, which had 35, and the Varner Unit, which had 25.
The state death toll rose by 32, to 3,689, among confirmed cases and by 23, to 807, among probable cases.
Among nursing-home and assisted-living facility residents, the count of virus deaths grew by 15, to 1,794.
The number of people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with the virus rose by 73, to 13,055.
The number of state virus patients who have ever been on a ventilator rose by five, to 1,379.
Meanwhile, the Health Department reported that the percentage of PCR tests of Arkansans that were positive over a rolling-seven day period fell from 10.3% as of Tuesday to 9.7% as of Wednesday.
The percentage for a given period typically increases, however, as more test results are reported.
Hutchinson has said he wants to keep the percentage -- a gauge of whether a state's testing is adequate -- below 10%.
The department also reported that the percentage of antigen tests that were positive over seven days fell slightly from 19.3% as of Tuesday to 19.2% as of Wednesday.
WORKPLACE CASES
Also on Thursday, the Health Department listed a North Little Rock accounting firm and four Tyson Foods plants as among workplaces with at least five active cases among employees.
The accounting firm, Bell & Co., had 10 cases, including five that were active as of Thursday, according to the department.
Tyson was listed as having seven active cases each at plants in Springdale and Berryville; six active cases at a Dardanelle plant; and five at a Clarksville plant.
Aerojet Rocketdyne in Camden and ConAgra in Russellville were each listed as having five active cases among employees.
The list doesn't include nursing homes, health care providers, schools or correctional facilities because information about those workplaces is listed in other reports.
