Here are some Key Notes, Statistics, and Video for Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s news update on the COVID-19 pandemic, along with updates and guidance from Dr. Nate Smith, Secretary of Health.
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- New cases
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- Rolling average
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- Active cases
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- Hospitalizations
The governor presented several charts as usual to show the number of cases and hospitalizations in Arkansas. Today’s message focused on nursing homes, so there were charts showing related statistics. The number of active cases in nursing homes peaked at 120 on May 13th and is currently at 87 active cases.
The amount of nursing homes in Arkansas with COVID-19 is about 15%. Out of 227 nursing homes in the state, 35 have cases of the virus.
The governor announced that beginning June 1st, the state has a goal of testing every nursing home resident and employee. That will be about 40,000 to 50000 new tests, according to the governor. He also gave an update on the LTSS payments (long-term services and supports) for workers who work directly with COVID-19 patients. Payments began processing on April 23rd and checks have gone out weekly since May 1st. As of this Friday, the payments will total $21,862,435.54.
When asked by reporters about the status of the recently breached Pandemic Unemployment Assistance application website, the governor said that officials are still investigating what happened. The program is on pause, according to Hutchinson, while waiting for forensic analysis. He said his priorities are to make the data secure and get the money out the door. He did not mention what will happen to the person who discovered the security hole and reported it to authorities.
RELATED TO THE BREACH:
- Monday COVID Update: FBI on PUA Security Issue; Bars Begin to Reopen
- Saturday COVID Update: Security issue may affect 30K PUA applicants; System offline
The governor will visit President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tomorrow and stated that the protocol is to wear a mask in the West Wing. He also said it will be his first time to be tested for COVID-19, as that is now part of the protocol as well.
Dr. Smith listed the current statistics for COVID-19 patients below:
CASES
- 102 deaths, up 2
- 78 hospitalizations, up 1
- 14 on a ventilator, up 2
- 4923 total cases, up 110
- 4 new cases in corrections
- 106 new cases in community
- 3739 recovered, up 94
- 1082 active cases
- 83 in nursing homes
- 369 in corrections
- 630 in the community
NURSING HOMES
- Nursing homes
- 325 residents, up 1
- 189 staff, up 2
CORRECTIONS
- Forrest City Federal Correctional Institution
- 585 inmates
- 17 staff
TESTS
- 39700 tests in the state in May so far
- 3014 tests yesterday in Arkansas
- 1.5% positive
- 550 tests Forrest City Community Saturday
- 500 results so far
- 32 positive / 6.4%
Statistics for Saline County as of the end of the day yesterday were:
Positives 82, up 2
Negatives 2523, up 233
Recoveries 72, up 2
Deaths 1
The link for case numbers the entire state is: https://adem.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f533ac8a8b6040e5896b05b47b17a647