EDITOR'S NOTE: As a service to our readers, The Sentinel-Record will publish daily updates released each weekday by the city of Hot Springs and the state of Arkansas.
The following stats were shared Tuesday at Gov. Asa Hutchinson's daily COVID-19 news conference in Little Rock and posted on the Arkansas Department of Health's website:
• 6,180 confirmed cases statewide, up 151 from Monday.
• 115,499 tests reported, up 3,877 from Monday.
• 5.3% rate of infection, down from 5.5% Monday.
• 1,729 active cases, up 66 from Monday.
• 4,332 recoveries, up 83 from Monday.
• 119 deaths, up two from Monday.
• 107 cases requiring hospitalization, up eight from Monday.
• 18 cases on a ventilator, up one from Monday.
• 361 nursing home residents infected, up two from Monday.
• 134 cases in Garland County, no change from Monday.
• 3,905 tests reported for Garland County, up 15 from Monday.
• 3.4% rate of infection, no change from Monday.
• 128 recoveries in Garland County, up one from Monday.
Five active cases in Garland County, down one from Monday.
One death in Garland County, no change from Monday.
Hutchinson stressed personal responsibility to flatten the second peak of infections in 30 days. He acknowledged the second peak at Saturday's briefing after 3,000 new cases have been reported since the last week of April, including more than 400 over the holiday weekend.
Tuesday's rolling seven-day average of 179.57 new cases rose 14.38% over Friday's 157 average. It has risen almost 80% since May 11. No new cases reported Tuesday in Garland County kept its moving seven-day average of new cases below one for a sixth-straight day.
"That shows a lack of discipline when people are not socially distanced wherever they're congregating where the virus can spread rapidly," Hutchinson, responding to reports of people crowding together and not wearing masks over the weekend, said. "That's a concern to me, and you don't diminish it, but you always want to recognize how many people in Arkansas have done the right thing.
"The vast majority are really paying attention to following the guidelines and making sure they don't contribute to the spread of the virus. But there were more than a few who put their own comfort and convenience above the health of others, and that is not helpful.
" ... The direction we go from here totally depends upon the discipline and the commitment of the people of Arkansas to avoid circumstances in which they'll contribute to the spread."
Hutchinson said the second peak notwithstanding, cases haven't reached levels forecast by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' predictive model. In late March, it predicted the state would have 8,000 cases by May 20. The updated model projects 8,500 cases by June 23.
The Health Department reported 107 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals Tuesday. The net increase of eight brought that category close to the peak of 109 reported April 27.
Dr. Nate Smith, Health Department secretary, said testing, contact tracing and isolation are only part of a mitigation strategy. Public cooperation is also a key component.
"Someone told me the other day, 'Why are we worried about a disease where 99% of the people recover,'" Smith said. "But that leaves 1% who don't. An example of that was one of our recent deaths. A woman who was infected at a Mother's Day gathering.
"That's tragic. That's not what anyone wanted when they gathered for that. So we need to think about what we're doing, and how it may impact people we care about."
Smith said Latinos made up almost half of the 151 new cases reported Tuesday. Their over representation in Tuesday's numbers is partially the result of the Latino community's presence in the poultry processing industry, Smith said, noting that 301 poultry plant workers have tested positive.
Infected poultry workers are most prevalent in northwest Arkansas, with 69 in Benton County and 44 in Washington County.
Hutchinson announced Smith has accepted the position of deputy director for public health service and implementation science for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. He'll remain with the Health Department until Aug. 28.
Hutchinson said Dr. Jose Romero will serve as the agency's secretary on an interim basis. Romero is a pediatric infectious disease specialist and professor of pediatrics at UAMS. He's also the medical director for infectious diseases at Arkansas Children's Hospital.
Local on 05/27/2020