Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday extended eligibility for the coronavirus vaccines to people who fall under the state vaccination plan's Phase 1-C, including "essential workers," such as those with jobs in food service, transportation and the media, and people age 16-64 with health conditions putting them at increased risk of severe illness from the virus.
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The phase also includes prison and jail inmates and others living in "high-risk" settings, such as student housing and group homes.
The Republican governor said the opening of the phase would make almost 1 million Arkansans eligible for the shots.
He said the move was spurred in part by President Joe Biden's directive to states last week to expand eligibility to all adults by May 1.
"It's also important to go ahead and open it up to 1-C because there has been some slowdown in parts of the state on the demand side, particularly in the rural parts of the state," he said.
"The urban parts of the state, you still have those that are trying to get in and get [on] the waiting list, but we want to move the state together and so we're going to open it up to 1-C across the state."
The announcement came as the state's count of coronavirus cases rose by 396 -- the eighth daily increase in a row that was smaller than the one a week earlier.
The number of people hospitalized in the state with covid-19, however, rose Tuesday for the second day in a row after falling every day for the previous six days.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by 12, to 5,493.
At his weekly news conference on the pandemic, Hutchinson said information about the health conditions that would qualify someone for the vaccine would be posted to the Health Department's website, but the information hadn't been added as of Tuesday afternoon.
"We're still finalizing our criteria for qualifying conditions," Health Department spokeswoman Danyelle McNeill said in an email, adding that it would probably follow the recommendations of an advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the CDC, the list of conditions that increase the risk of severe covid-19 includes obesity, type 2 diabetes, certain heart conditions, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a weakened immune system after an organ transplant and sickle cell disease.
Smokers and pregnant women are also considered at increased risk.
People with Down syndrome, who also have an elevated risk of severe illness from the virus, were added to Phase 1-B of the state's plan along with people with other types of developmental disabilities last week.
McNeill said the department's list of qualifying conditions will also include ones that might increase the risk of severe covid-19, although less information about those risks is known.
The CDC's list of those conditions includes asthma, cerebrovascular disease, cystic fibrosis, high blood pressure, dementia, liver disease, pulmonary fibrosis, a blood disorder known as thalassemia and type 1 diabetes.
Being overweight but not heavy enough to be considered obese or having an immune system weakened by factors other than an organ transplant might also increase the risk of severe illness, according to the CDC.
Obesity alone would qualify about 39% of Arkansans age 18-64 for the vaccines, according to a 2018 CDC survey.
Health Secretary Jose Romero said people won't be required to show proof of their health condition, and pharmacists and other providers won't be reporting information about the conditions to the department.
"It's an honor system," he said.
"We would expect and we would hope that healthy, young individuals don't cut in front of other people that need the vaccine."
In addition to those in food service, transportation and the media, workers made eligible for the shots on Tuesday include those with jobs in energy, finance, information technology, communications, the legal system, public health, human services, public safety, logistics and shelter and housing.
LOOKING TO ACCELERATE
John Vinson, CEO of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, said the opening of Phase 1-C would speed up a vaccination effort that encountered obstacles after the state last week extended eligibility to frontline workers, such as those working in factories and grocery stores, who fall under Phase 1-B of the state plan.
"There's been more hesitancy than what we would like in the 1-B population, meaning we have a lot of work to do from an educational point of view," he said.
Also, while some employers were ready to set up vaccination clinics for their employees right away, others are still working on their plans.
"With that being the case, opening it up to a bigger population of patients, meaning those people who absolutely are sure, and they don't need anything answered -- there's no delays in getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible," Vinson said.
After Hutchinson's announcement, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences increased the number of operators scheduling appointments for its vaccine clinic in Little Rock from seven to 10 to handle the rise in calls, UAMS spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said.
"We actually were able to schedule some of them for today, and we do have some availability over the next few days," Taylor said.
She said the response from people seeking vaccination appointments was "much bigger" than when Hutchinson extended eligibility to front-line workers last week and comparable to when Arkansans age 65-69 became eligible last month.
She said the clinic will increase the number of shots it administers from about 500 a day to about 600 a day.
At West Side Pharmacy in Benton, "it's not been an overwhelming response, but it's been a strong response," pharmacist Zack Haley said.
"We've had a lot of patients that have been anxiously waiting, especially if they have underlying conditions, that haven't been previously eligible," he said.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville has been offering the vaccine to eligible students at its campus health center but doesn't have plans for mass clinics for students, spokesman Zac Brown said in an email.
"Many of our students are already eager to get vaccinated, so additional campus communications will be sent out through various channels to inform students on how they can schedule a vaccine appointment," Brown said.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said the state prison system is still working on vaccinating employees who became eligible for the shots under Phase 1-B.
"Once those have been completed, we will begin vaccinating offenders," Murphy said in an email. "We will begin with inmates identified as high risk for COVID due to age or diagnosed comorbidities."
In the state's vaccination plan, Phase 1-C is followed by Phase 2, when it's expected that the vaccine will be available to the general public.
Hutchinson said 55.3% of Arkansans age 65 and older had received at least one vaccine dose as of Tuesday and 27.2% had been fully vaccinated.
Lorrie Trogden, CEO of the Arkansas Bankers Association, announced at the news conference that several banks have offered space at their branches that pharmacies can use to hold vaccination clinics.
Express Rx, a Little Rock-based pharmacy chain, announced in a news release that it is holding vaccination clinics this week in Heber Springs, Hope, Little Rock and White Hall.
People can schedule appointments for the shots on its website, expressrx.net.
DOSES REPORTED
According to the Health Department, providers participating in the vaccination effort coordinated by the state had received 1,325,200 vaccine doses as of Tuesday morning, up 80,980 from the total as of a day earlier.
The doses those providers reported having administered, including booster shots, rose by 12,425, to 781,348.
In addition, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network pharmacies had been allotted 174,380 doses through federal programs, up by 9,360 from the total as of a day earlier.
The doses those providers reported having administered rose by 2,472, to 82,532.
According to the CDC, 589,436 Arkansans, representing 19.5% of the population, had received at least one vaccine dose as of Tuesday.
That included 314,915 people, or 10.4% of the state's population, who had been fully vaccinated.
Among the states and District of Columbia, Arkansas ranked 45th in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one vaccine dose and 46th in the percentage who had been fully vaccinated.
Nationally, 21.7% of people had received at least one vaccine dose as of Tuesday, and 11.8% had been fully vaccinated.
ACTIVE CASES RISE
The number of people hospitalized with covid-19 in the state rose Tuesday by seven, to 257.
That included 58 patients who were on ventilators, a number that hadn't changed from a day earlier.
The increase in the state's case count was smaller, by 36 cases, than the one the previous Tuesday, March 9.
As a result the average number of cases added to the state's tallies over a rolling seven-day period fell by five, to 296.
That was the first time the average daily increase over seven days had dropped below 300 since early June.
The cases added Tuesday included 211 that were confirmed through polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests.
The other 185 were "probable" cases, which include those identified through less-sensitive antigen tests.
The state's cumulative count of cases rose to 327,456.
That comprised 257,449 confirmed cases and 70,007 probable ones.
The number of cases that were considered active rose by 12, to 2,875, as 372 Arkansans were newly classified as having recovered.
Pulaski County had the largest number of new cases, 54, followed by Benton County, which had 49, Washington County, which had 35, Faulkner County, which had 22, and Baxter County, which had 15.
Among prison and jail inmates, the Health Department's count of cases rose by 20.
Murphy said the Grimes Unit near Newport and the Ouachita River Unit in Malvern each had one new case among inmates.
The Malvern prison had 35 active cases as of Tuesday. The Grimes Unit had four.
The state's death toll rose by 11, to 4,387, among confirmed cases and by one, to 1,106, among probable cases.
Among nursing home and assisted living facility residents, the state's count of virus deaths rose by five, to 2,022.
The number of people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with covid-19 grew by 40, to 15,093.
The number of the state's virus patients who have ever been on a ventilator rose by four, to 1,554.
Information for this article was contributed by Jaime Adame of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.