EDITOR'S NOTE: As a service to our readers, The Sentinel-Record publishes updates released each weekday by the city of Hot Springs and the state of Arkansas.
The following stats were shared Friday at Gov. Asa Hutchinson's daily COVID-19 news conference in Little Rock and posted on the Arkansas Department of Health website:
• 48,039 cumulative infections, up 1,011 from Thursday.
• 551,523 test reports, up 7,160 from Thursday.
• 8.7% infection rate, up from 8.6% Thursday.
• 7,158 active cases, up 200 from Thursday.
• 40,360 recoveries, up 805 from Thursday.
• 523 hospitalizations, up nine from Thursday.
• 116 cases on a ventilator, up five from Thursday.
• 1,462 cumulative nursing home residents infected, up 37 from Thursday.
• 521 deaths, up six from Thursday.
• 964 cumulative cases in Garland County, up 25 from Thursday.
• 14,583 test reports for Garland County, up 215 from Thursday.
• 6.6% infection rate, up from 6.5% Thursday.
• 212 active cases in Garland County, up two from Thursday.
• 743 recoveries in Garland County, up 22 from Thursday.
• Nine deaths in Garland County, up one from Thursday.
Hutchinson said the steering committee that advises the Legislature on appropriations from the state's federal coronavirus relief fund will consider a proposal next for a $20 million outlay for emergency leave for school employees.
The funding would pay for two weeks of paid leave for teachers and staff who have to quarantine. The leave could be taken before teachers and staff have to use their sick days and would be available through the end of the year.
"We know there's going to be a positive case in the school," Hutchinson said. "We know that because of that we might have to have a staff person who has to quarantine or a teacher who has to quarantine even though they're not positive. We don't want that to have to come out of their ordinary leave or their pocket."
Hutchinson said the $20 million is a best-guess estimate of time off school personnel may need when classes start the week of Aug. 24.
The 1,011 new cases reported Friday were the most since July 23. They included 100 cases from the Wrightsville Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction.
"We did have a very good day in testing, with 6,224," Hutchinson said. "With that I have a little bit better acceptance of that number of cases, but it's still at a high level."
The new cases raised the rolling seven-day average of new cases to 789.71. Friday's average was 5% higher than the previous day's and 3.3% lower than the July 29 peak of 817.43. Infection curves in three of the state's five public health regions are trending up, according to information Hutchinson shared at Friday's briefing.
"You don't like the way it's pointed," Hutchinson said. "We've got to have it pointed down a different direction. We don't want to reach the peak we were at 10 days ago... Over the last five or six days it's been very flat. There's been a spike up, but if you look at the overall trend line it's been flat."
Active cases hit a new peak Friday after tracing a flatter trajectory for more than two weeks. The 7,158 active cases surpassed the previous peak of 7,127 from July 20.
The 29 new cases reported Friday in Garland County lowered its rolling seven-day average for the sixth time in seven days. Friday's 21.42 average was 28.6% lower than the July 31 peak of 30.
The county's active cases rose for a third-straight day, and its cumulative infection rate rose for the 21st time in 24 days.