NW Democrat-Gazette

Hospitalizations for covid-19 climb; state logs 302 new cases

ANDY DAVIS

The upward trend in Arkansas’ new coronavirus cases continued Monday as the state’s case count rose by 302, the largest increase on a Monday since late September.

After dipping a day earlier, the number of covid-19 patients in the state’s hospitals jumped by 20, to 452, its highest level in more than six weeks.

The state’s death toll from the virus, as tracked by the Department of Health, rose by 13, to 8,752.

“In today’s report, hospitalizations reached the highest level since October 19th,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a tweet.

“While this number is concerning, we can work to prevent it from increasing. Almost 88% of COVID hospitalizations are unvaccinated, and this serves as a motivator to get vaccinated.”

Due to slowdowns in testing and reporting on weekends, Arkansas’ new case numbers tend to go down on Sundays and Mondays.

The increase in cases on Monday, however, was larger by 95 than the one the previous Monday, just after Thanksgiving weekend.

The average daily increase in the state’s case count over a rolling seven-day period rose to 838, its highest level since the week ending Sept. 30.

With recoveries and deaths outpacing new cases, the number of cases in the state that were considered active fell by 388, to 7,167, according to the Health Department’s online coronavirus dashboard.

Tweets by the department and Hutchinson listed a slightly different total, 7,165.

Both numbers were still up by more than 1,800 compared with the total a week earlier.

Despite the increase in hospitalized patients, the number of people with covid-19 who were on ventilators fell for the second day in a row, going from 83 as of Sunday to 79.

A day after reaching its highest level in more than a month, the number who were in intensive care fell by 10, to 167.

The number of intensive care unit beds in the state’s hospitals that were unoccupied rose by one, to 76.

People with covid-19 made up almost 16% of all the state’s patients in intensive care as of Monday, down from almost 17% a day earlier.

SCHOOL CASES UP

Among students and employees at the state’s public elementary and secondary schools, the number of active cases, as tracked in Health Department reports released twice a week, continued to rebound from the low they reached just after students returned from Thanksgiving break.

From Thursday to Monday, the number rose by 54, to 1,123. That was up from 705 on Nov. 28.

The number of the state’s 261 school districts and charter school systems with five or more active cases, however, fell by two, to 58 from Thursday to Monday.

The Bentonville and Springdale school districts continued to have the largest active case totals, with the number falling by one, to 61, in the Bentonville district and rising by two, to 59, in the Springdale district, the state’s largest.

The Cabot School District had the next-highest active case total on Monday, 43, followed by the Rogers School District with 38 and the Fort Smith School District with 33.

Within Pulaski County, the active case totals were 25 in the Little Rock School District, the state’s second-largest, 21 in the North Little Rock School District and 16 in the Pulaski County Special School District.

The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District was not listed among districts that had at least five active cases as of Monday.

On its website, the district reported that it did not have any active cases among students or employees as of Sunday.

It said nine students and one employee were in quarantine after being near someone who tested positive for the virus.

The Little Rock district said in its own report that 10 students and five employees at several schools had tested positive over a three-day span ending at 3 p.m. Monday, and an additional 46 students and one employee had been placed in quarantine.

Kimberly Mundell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, said no districts had reported virus-related shifts to virtual education that were ongoing as of Monday.

HIGHER EDUCATION

At Arkansas colleges and universities, the number of active cases among students and employees rose by 10, to 128, from Thursday to Monday, according to Health Department reports.

The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville continued to have the highest total, 38, on Monday, up from 37 as of Thursday.

Arkansas Tech University in Russellville had the next-highest total as of Monday with 11, followed by John Brown University in Siloam Springs with eight.

At private elementary and secondary schools, the number of active cases among students and employees rose by one, to 25, from Thursday to Monday.

No private schools were listed as having five or more active cases as of Monday.

PROJECTIONS RELEASED

After peaking at more than 1,400 in mid-August during the summer surge, the number of covid-19 patients in the Arkansas’ hospitals fell to as low as 276 on Nov. 16 before it began climbing again along with the state’s new case numbers.

In an “issue brief” released Monday, researchers with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health predicted new cases would continue to trend upward “throughout the holiday season.”

“The current projected trends could potentially reflect a new emerging third wave in Arkansas,” the researchers wrote. “Unlike 2020, this wave, if it occurs, is most likely to peak early in the first months of the new year, most likely February or early March.”

How the omicron variant, which was first identified last month in southern Africa, will affect the state’s cases, hospitalizations and deaths from covid-19 is unknown, the researchers wrote.

“However, we do know the Delta variant, the dominant variant in Arkansas, is highly infectious and capable of causing severe illness in children and adults,” the researchers wrote.

“We also know there are sufficient numbers of unvaccinated citizens in Arkansas to drive a third surge in the state.”

Health Department spokeswoman Danyelle McNeill said no omicron cases had been identified in Arkansas as of Monday afternoon.

She said the department had been notified of a total of 13 people in Arkansas, up from 11 as of Friday, who had recently been to one of eight countries in southern Africa that are subject to a federal travel restriction that took effect last week in response to the new variant.

Through a contractor, the department has been contacting the people and advising them to get tested and quarantine for at least seven days.

None of the people had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday, McNeill said.

CASES BY COUNTY

Benton County had the most new cases on Monday, 24, followed by Pulaski County with 23 and Washington County with 20.

The state’s cumulative count of cases rose to 533,658.

McNeill said six of the deaths reported Monday happened in October. The others occurred within the past month, she said.

She said 8.7% of the state’s coronavirus tests were positive over the seven-day span ending Sunday, down from the 9.2% that was initially reported for the week ending Thursday.

Hutchinson has said he wants to keep the percentage below 10%.

The number of people who have ever been hospitalized in the state with covid-19 grew by 19, to 28,597.

The number of the state’s virus patients who have ever been on a ventilator rose by two, to 3,008.

VACCINATION UPTICK

Meanwhile, at 3,407, the increase in the Health Department’s tally of vaccine doses that had been administered was the fifth one in a row that was larger than the one a week earlier.

Booster shots made up 47% of the most recent increase.

The count of first doses rose by 1,025, which was larger by 90 than the increase in first doses a week earlier.

The average number of total doses administered each day over a rolling-seven day period rose to 10,912, the highest average since the week ending Sept. 1.

The average for first doses rose to 3,324, which was still down slightly from its level just before Thanksgiving.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 61.1% of Arkansans had received at least one vaccine dose as of Monday, up from 61% a day earlier.

The percentage of Arkansans who had been fully vaccinated remained at 49.8%.

Of those who had been fully vaccinated, 23.5% had received a booster dose, up from 23.2% a day earlier.

Among the states and District of Columbia, Arkansas ranked 37th in the percentage of its residents who had received at least one dose.

It was roughly tied with Tennessee for 42nd, ahead of Georgia, West Virginia, North Dakota, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Wyoming and Idaho, in the percentage of its residents who were fully vaccinated.

Nationally, 71.1% of people had received at least one dose, and 60% were fully vaccinated.

Of the fully vaccinated population nationally, 23.6% had received a booster dose.

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