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. As of presstime Wednesday, not all of the daily updates had been released by the Arkansas Department of Health.
The following stats were shared Wednesday at Gov. Asa Hutchinson's daily COVID-19 news conference in Monticello and posted on the Health Department website:
ā¢ 51,114 cumulative cases, up 703 from Tuesday.
ā¢ 6,725 active cases, down 122 from Tuesday.
ā¢ 43,816 recoveries, up 818 from Tuesday.
ā¢ 486 hospitalizations, down 21 from Tuesday.
ā¢ 573 deaths, up seven from Tuesday.
ā¢ 1,113 cumulative cases in Garland County, up 42 from Tuesday.
The rolling seven-day average of new cases fell for a fourth-straight day, reaching its lowest point in more than three weeks. Wednesday's 688.71 average was 16% lower than the July 29 peak of 817.43.
"It shows that we continue to be flat, but we're not where we need to be as a state," Hutchinson said. "Right now we're still pointing down, but if you don't have each day a decreasing number of cases that line will not continue."
The net decrease of 21 in hospitalizations brought the category to its lowest point in more than two weeks. Active cases fell to their lowest point in more than a week.
"Whenever you slow the increase in cases and you have people recover, that will mean the active cases are in decline, which is good news for the hospitals," Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said 42 new cases were reported Wednesday in Garland County, the fourth-highest total in the state. County stats the Health Department posts on its website were unavailable at press time, but the cases Hutchinson reported raised the county's rolling seven-day average of new cases for a fourth day in a row.
Wednesday's 29 average was close to the July 31 peak of 30.
After a second day of lower than normal test reports, Hutchinson announced he plans to sign a letter of intent to include the state in a consortium with The Rockefeller Foundation and other states seeking faster testing results from commercial labs. For weeks Hutchinson has said larger states' higher demand for testing has created a backlog at commercial labs. He continued that refrain Wednesday.
"It delays the response time, and it decreases the numbers as well," he said.
Hutchinson said working with other states will increase buying power and convince commercial labs to invest in expansion.
"It will strengthen our place in the marketplace, so that we can give them confidence that they can expand," he said. "They know the demand is there, because states have committed to that demand ... When we enter into a more formal contract we'll know what the state's obligation will be in terms of a contract for purchasing and creating more demand for testing supplies in the future."
Hutchinson said joining a purchasing group with other states doesn't signal a lack of confidence in the federal government's ability to expand testing.
"It's a signal that testing is so important to our strategy that I'll knock on any door to achieve the result of greater success," he said. "I'll continue to push for national solutions to the shortage in commercial testing labs, but I'll also help from a state perspective to create that demand."