As the state prepares for a potential surge of coronavirus cases stemming from gatherings over Labor Day weekend, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Defense is sending a 20-person military medical crew to help with staffing at UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock.
"UAMS is receiving patients from across the state, and it costs precious time if they have to be diverted to another hospital that we might have an empty bed in, and so just by creating additional capacity at UAMS, [it] should be really helpful to our outlying areas that are bringing patients in and normally served by UAMS," Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson made the announcement as the numbers of covid-19 patients in the state's hospitals, on ventilators and in intensive care all fell Wednesday after rising a day earlier.
After a slowdown in testing over the holiday weekend, the state's count of cases rose by 2,181, the second daily increase in a row that was significantly smaller than the one a week earlier.
The state's death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by 34, to 7,142.
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At his weekly news conference at the state Capitol, Hutchinson said the military medical team -- comprising 14 nurses, four physicians and two respiratory therapists -- is expected to arrive at UAMS Medical Center today.
He said the team will be "blended in with the existing staff at the hospital" and will "help us to increase our capacity for managing both covid and non-covid emergencies and health needs that are out there."
The personnel were assigned to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences for 30 days, although that could be extended, he said. He said the assistance was being provided at no cost to the state.
Of the nurses, four work in critical care, eight are medical-surgical nurses and two work in emergency medicine, he said.
The physicians comprise two who specialize in hospital medicine, one in critical care and one in emergency medicine.
UAMS spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said the request for assistance was submitted by the state Department of Public Safety's Division of Emergency Management on Aug. 28.
UAMS learned Friday that the request had been granted, she said.
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"There's a nursing shortage, and so certainly having these experienced people here will give our staff some much-needed help," Taylor said.
She said she expected the team to start orientation today and begin work later this week.
"They will be working in our ICUs, our med-surg units, in the emergency department," Taylor said.
"They're going to be working in those areas where we need help, and to be able to have these experienced personnel to help is really a boon to us."
On Wednesday, she said UAMS had 44 covid-19 patients, which was "the lowest number we've had in a while."
"While our covid numbers are low, we realize that can change because we haven't really seen the surge from Labor Day yet," she said.
She said the hospital also had a high number of non-covid-19 patients and was not accepting transfers from other hospitals.
"We're hoping that's one of the things this will allow us to do, is to open up more beds and have more capacity," she said.
This summer, she said, UAMS increased its number of intensive care unit beds by 10, to 62.
The hospital's covid-19 patients on Wednesday included 15 who were in intensive care. Of those, nine were on ventilators and one was on a heart-lung bypass machine.
Five of the 44 covid-19 patients, all with other health conditions, had been fully vaccinated, she said.
HOSPITALIZATIONS DOWN
The number of patients hospitalized with covid-19 statewide fell Wednesday by 19, to 1,209, its lowest level since Aug. 1 and down from a record high of 1,459 on Aug. 16.
The number who were on ventilators, which reached a high of 388 on Aug. 31, fell by one, to 320.
After reaching a high of 558 on Aug. 23, the number who were in intensive care fell Wednesday by 16, to 497, dropping below 500 for the first time since Aug. 8.
The number of intensive care unit beds that were unoccupied statewide rose Wednesday by three, to 23.
People with covid-19 made up 44% of the state's intensive care patients, down from 46% a day earlier.
Hutchinson said the available ICU beds on Wednesday included two pediatric beds.
"That's closer than we like, but it is better than what it has been," Hutchinson said.
Hilary DeMillo, a spokeswoman for Arkansas Children's, said six of the 26 beds in the pediatric intensive care unit at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock were being used on Wednesday by covid-19 patients, all of whom were on ventilators.
All but two of the remaining beds were filled with patients with other illnesses and injuries, she said.
Two other covid-19 patients requiring critical care were in other units, she said.
"We continue to have resources available to convert existing spaces into rooms where intensive care can be delivered, but remain stretched with staffing, especially nurses," DeMillo said.
She said the Little Rock hospital had a total of 22 covid-19 patients as of Wednesday. Arkansas Children's Northwest in Springdale had two.
The total of 24 covid-19 patients was the same as a day earlier and down from a record of 31 patients at the two hospitals on Aug. 13.
Just one of the 24 patients had been fully vaccinated, DeMillo said.
More than half were at least 12, making them eligible for the Pfizer vaccine.
The other two vaccines that have been authorized in the United States, from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are only allowed for people 18 and over.
NEW ICU BEDS
Compared with a peak in January, the number of covid-19 patients in the state's hospitals on Wednesday was lower by 162, while the number who were on ventilators was higher by 52.
The number of covid-19 patients who were in intensive care was higher by 39 than in January.
"I think that what's happening is that those who are being able to get out [of the hospital] now are the ones that have moderate disease, and so now what we're doing is leaving the individuals with severe disease, and some of those are going to progress on to ventilators," Health Secretary Jose Romero said.
"Maybe we can get people off of ventilators, but they're being replaced by others that are going back on."
To expand hospital capacity, the state last month allocated more than $66 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to open and staff a total of 254 hospital beds, including 96 ICU beds, at hospitals in Little Rock, Hot Springs, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff, Searcy, Fort Smith and Van Buren for 60 days.
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According to the Health Department, 193 of the beds, including 69 of the ICU beds, had been opened as of Wednesday.
The rest were expected to be opened sometime this month.
"We will have 27 new ICU beds coming online in September," Hutchinson said. "We're trying to get ahead of the curve, if there is a curve that goes up."
FEWER SHIFTS
While the number of active cases among public elementary and secondary school students and employees was at a record high as of Monday, Education Secretary Johnny Key said the cases have been resulting in fewer disruptions to in-person instruction this year than last year.
Two districts, the Lafayette County School District and the Western Yell County School District, this week became the first in the state this school year to temporarily shift all their students to remote instruction.
"What we're seeing in the districts, especially those districts that are having more challenges, are typically lower vaccination rates with the staff, especially the staff," Key said.
Under the Department of Education's guidelines for school districts, students and employees who have not been fully vaccinated must quarantine for seven to 14 days if they were within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes within a 24-hour period.
Those who are fully vaccinated don't need to quarantine in such situations unless they have symptoms.
Students and employees also aren't required to quarantine if both they and the infected person were wearing masks.
"In these districts that we're talking about, especially these smaller districts, that has been the challenge – the unavailability of staff due to positive case or due to quarantines," Key said.
The Health Department, meanwhile, is researching the effect of school mask policies on the number of cases within schools.
According to a graph that Hutchinson displayed at the news conference, the cases among students and employees in school districts without mask requirements last week translated to a rate of 596 cases per 100,000 students and employees.
That compared with 372 cases per 100,000 students and employees in districts that require students and employees to wear masks. Districts with partial mask policies, such as those applying only to students under age 12, had 344 cases cases per 100,000 students and employees.
State Epidemiologist Mike Cima said the department is working on a model that will allow it to isolate the effect of the mask policies by adjusting for factors such as vaccination rates and the level of community transmission.
Act 1002, passed by the Legislature during this year's legislative session, barred schools and other state and local government entities from requiring people to wear masks, but Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox on Aug. 6 blocked the law from being enforced while a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality is pending.
A survey conducted by the Bureau of Legislative Research last week found that districts with mask requirements had a smaller percentage of their students and employees who had tested positive or been required to quarantine compared with those with no mask requirements, according to results presented to members of the Legislature's public health committees on Tuesday.
LAWMAKER'S REMARKS
Hutchinson on Wednesday took issue with state Rep. Mary Bentley's comments on vaccines at the committee meeting during a discussion on the pandemic.
Citing infections that have occurred in fully vaccinated people, Bentley, R-Perryville, said at the meeting that "vaccines are not the answer."
"We're hearing from health officials that vaccines are not going to get us to where we need to be, that we need to work on other things as well," such as early treatment of people who are infected, Bentley said.
"I could not disagree more with how Rep. Bentley has articulated that issue," Hutchinson said Wednesday.
"Vaccines are what every medical profession says we need to follow. We've worked hard as a country, from [former] President [Donald] Trump having Operation Warp speed, getting the vaccines out in record time to seeing how it has saved lives and reduced hospitalizations, as the data shows."
He added that getting vaccinated is a matter of "individual responsibility" and "responsibility to our community."
"Whether it's been smallpox or other communicable diseases, we've always looked at the good of the community as well, and high vaccination rates is what has got us through those different episodes in history," Hutchinson said.
Bentley didn't return a phone message Wednesday seeking comment on Hutchinson's remarks.
According to the Health Department, since Feb. 1, 88.5% of the state's cases, 90.5% of its hospitalizations from covid-19 and 88.1% of its covid-19 deaths have been among people who were not fully vaccinated.
ACTIVE CASES FALL
The increase in cases on Wednesday was smaller by more than 700 than the one the previous Wednesday.
As a result, the average daily increase in the state's case count over a rolling seven-day period fell to 1,674, its lowest level since July 28.
With recoveries outpacing new cases, the number of cases in the state that were considered active fell by 294, to 19,500, its lowest level since Aug. 3.
Washington County had the most new cases on Wednesday, 196, followed by Benton County, with 170, and Pulaski County, with 159.
The state's cumulative count of cases rose to 467,496.
Meanwhile, at 7,717, the increase in vaccine doses that providers reported having administered, including second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, was smaller by more than 4,700 than the one a week earlier.
The average number of doses administered each day over a rolling seven-day period fell to 7,580, its lowest level since July 21.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of Arkansans who had received at least one vaccine dose rose Wednesday by 916, to 1,631,518, representing about 54.1% of the population.
The number who had been fully vaccinated rose by 1,643, to 1,295,202, or about 42.9% of the population.
Among the states and District of Columbia, Arkansas continued to rank 37th in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one dose and 42nd in the percentage who were fully vaccinated.
Nationally, 62.7% of people had received at least one dose, and 53.3% were fully vaccinated.
Information for this article was contributed by Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
![State Health Secretary Jose Romero (right), addressing the rising number of patients in intensive care and on ventilators despite lower hospitalization numbers, said Wednesday that “I think that what’s happening is that those who are being able to get out [of the hospital] now are the ones that have moderate disease, and so now what we’re doing is leaving the individuals with severe disease, and some of those are going to progress on to ventilators,”
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)](https://wehco.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2021/09/08/insideAcorona_t800.jpg?90232451fbcadccc64a17de7521d859a8f88077d)