Day 37 – Fri. Apr. 17, 2020

Here are some Key Notes, Statistics, and Video for Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s news update on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Governor Hutchinson began the press conference by honoring Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., of Fort Smith, Arkansas, who served on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt and died after having contracted COVID-19.

The governor then updated with a few charts to show how Arkansas is doing where the number of cases per day, the amount of hospitalizations, and the infection rate.

He then moved to begin discussing how to reopen the state for commerce. The new phrase we’re learning for this is “gating criteria.” It means the standards we need to achieve in order to get back to regular business activity. Hutchinson and Dr. Smith each laid out guidelines for getting to Phase 1 of opening the “gate” on normal activity. You can see in the slides below that there are several criteria that the state must meet in order to get to Phase 1. In short, we need fewer COVID symptoms, cases and hospitalizations.

The Governor and Dr. Smith, along with the medical advisory committee have set May 4th, 2020 as a date that they hope to enter Phase 1.

Dr. Smith stated that post-peak response includes the following four goals:

Restoring the state’s economy
Protecting our most vulnerable citizens
Maintaining adequate health care and public health capacity
Preventing the resurgence of COVID-19

Dr. Smith said that while we are headed toward that date we should continue to observe the CDC guidelines of

washing hands frequently
keeping up with our social distancing
keeping a clean mask with you to wear when you might come within a shorter distance, like at the grocery store,
stay home when you’re sick, and
avoid groups of greater than 10 people.

Also, businesses can begin to plan and prepare for ways to allow for physical distancing when they’re able to open again.

Dr. Smith stated that our lack of elective surgeries has meant many medical professionals haven’t had as much work. They’re looking at ways to begin bringing back elective surgeries in ways that people can safely get back to work and the hospitals can begin to function in a way that’s closer to normal.

The advisory committee is looking at each of the directives to see how they can be pulled back or modified. Dr. Smith stated that they want to do it in a way that is targeted and data-driven.

He also said that the gate reopening plan will be a statewide plan, but it will be respecting regional differences within the state.

Dr. Smith gave statistics that out of 1695 cases of COVID-19 in Arkansas, 365 are people over the age of 65, or about 18.5%. But out of 37 deaths, 25 of those are over the age of 65, or about 67%.

Finally, Dr. Smith appealed to the public to think of the people in our lives who we need to protect from COVID-19, particularly these older individuals with underlying medical conditions. “Remember them and draw motivation from those. The changes that we’ve made and continue to do oh, these are the people we do it for.”

Closing the presentation, the Governor reiterated that May 4th is the goal date for Phase 1 of reopening, but asked for everyone’s cooperation in doing the basic things in the next two weeks to help us get there. “We are still a long ways from a full opening, but this is a start, and we need everybody’s help to meet that goal.”

Dr. Nate Smith, State Secretary of Health listed the current statistics for COVID-19 patients below: