Thank you for joining me for today's weekly COVID-19 update. I'm pleased to be joined by Dr. Morrow of the Department of Health also have Secretary johnnie key of the Department of Education. I'm pleased to be joined by Curtis Barnett, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield for an emphasis on a good partnership on vaccination that he will talk about shortly. And of course, we have Colonel ater as well and a number of others from our Department of Health Team. Let me first just recognize is President Biden has recognized that our nation has passed a sorrowful landmark and reaching 500,000 deaths as a result of COVID-19 during this pandemic. As a result, the state of Arkansas has lowered our flags at half mast in accordance with the president to proclamation and we along with the rest of the nation grieve over the loss of life and the consequences that we see to our families and loved ones. We are proceeding with our vaccination efforts. And that gives us great hope. And whenever you look at our vaccination efforts if we've previously been vaccinating, in category one be of the same age 70 plus age group, and today I'm pleased to announce that we will be lowering the age group eligible for vaccination to 65. And plus, and if we can look at the graphic, we can see that phase one B is expanding effective today to the 65 plus age group. This will add 115,000 new Arkansans to the role to be vaccinated, this is a large chunk, but we want to keep the demand for our vaccinations active we want to make sure that as we make progress in the 70 plus that we keep the lines filled and we live in it to 65 plus make sense. This will be available these vaccinations through our community pharmacies, our clinics located in every county, we can call ahead for an appointment. I want everybody to bear in mind that this does not mean that everybody 70 and plus has been vaccinated because they haven't we have largely vaccinated are in made available at least for the first dose for our teachers. Our emergency workers have been vaccinated, we are those in the nursing homes have been vaccinated and these have been made available to them. And so we've made broad swaths in progress in these different categories in one a and starting with one B. But there's always more to do in those categories. And but it is time to move up to 65 Plus, and so you'll have to be patient, as you call for an appointment, and the pharmacies are working very, very hard to make sure that they get as many doses out as they can. And that leads me to the report on vaccinations.
If you see in our state program, we've received 794,000 doses. And the reason we're down at 63% now is because we just received 102,000 doses. Within the last 24 hours, we've given out 13,000. So obviously, the dose percent goes down some hot. Our federal programs, our federal partners include CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, they continue to give out doses and increasing their availability as they completed their long term care facility program. And so the total doses received in Arkansas 855,000 total doses given 534,000 in round numbers. And so we're in phase one be age 65 and older. And I would emphasize that, as you look back when we started this vaccination program, we wanted to get into through category one B by the end of March. Now we're not necessarily ahead of schedule, and we got a lot of work to do to keep up with that schedule. But that still remains our goal. And then I did want to make another announcement as I spoke with the Coronavirus task force of the Biden administration today. I've been advised that we will increase nationwide our doses By 1 million, that will be in addition to our current allocations. For Arkansas, that means that we will be allocated around 4000 additional doses that will then be sent to us next week. But that is good news. And that's guaranteed increase for over the next three weeks. The retail pharmacy program will also receive nationwide 100,000 additional doses, which means that the state program is getting the largest bulk, of course, of the allocation because we're distributed and statewide, emphasizing our priorities. And both efficiency and equity as well.
As Dr. Romero will be working on this weekend. And if the emergency use authorization is issued by the FDA, for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, then this would mean that next week, we could see another 2 million doses available nationwide, which would once again, increase the doses that are available in Arkansas. So part of raising or lowering this to 65 Plus is looking ahead to the future as to what we see as an increased supply. And then let's go through the case report for today. And let's look right here in the middle, where you have our new cases at 834 new cases over the last 24 hours, our active cases have been reduced by 92. And our total deaths excuse me, our new deaths are at 14. And is everyone who follows this we do see a decreasing number of new deaths. We look forward to the day that that will be down to zero. If you go up to the right side, you'll see on the hospitalizations continue good news 43 fewer hospitalizations and 10 fewer on ventilators. I would I know that this is a result of better therapeutics. But I also have confidence that the reduced hospitalizations has something to do with the vaccines that are available and have been administered in our elderly population. And that is encouraging to see some positive results from even the vaccinations we've done thus far. If you look at the testing, the testing is higher than it was a week ago. But the week ago is when the snow started. We've got 4500 new tests, right at 4600 new tests that have been done, but it's still low. And we've got the new cases 134. These, it'll be interesting to see over the next couple of days whether that 834 is a catch up over tasks that were done in previous days during the snow or before that and they just did not get delivered to us. But it's still a reminder that this virus is still with us. And we have a lot of work to do. And we've got to keep those cases down, get vaccinated to stay on the right target. Let me briefly go through these slides. There's a number of but I think it's important to see where we are the seven day rolling average of confirmed and probable cases, you see the incredible steep decline that we've seen over the last couple of weeks. We're now at a lower point than we were September one. Next slide. hospitalizations continue to go down. That is I'd like to see it go down more cores to get to some of those low points. The next slide is the active cases. That's is at a lower point than we've had back in since back into September. Amazing statistics on the reduction in our active cases. And then the this is the cumulative number of antigen tests. And you can see how the testing have slowed down. The testing is slowed down because demand has been reduced. And we're going to watch that carefully. We're looking at creative ways to with our resources to increase that testing. And you see the next slide is a PCR test that also has flattened out. We'll see now that the snow is gone whether that kick picks up again and you know the demand is decrease both for the antigen test and the PCR test. And then if you look at the positivity rate this is you see the 10% level it is down below the 10% positivity rate. And this is combined PCR and antigen. This obviously is encouraging to us, because that indicates that there's less risk in the communities in which we live. Let's see, I think that concludes that. I know I took some time on that. But let me turn the microphone over to Dr. Romero for his comments. And then I'll invite Curtis Barnett to come up to talk about vaccinate the natural state. Dr. Merrill.
Thank you, Governor, just to reinforce what the governor has said. number of deaths among Long Term Care residents is going down. And I want to emphasize that for those individuals in long term care facilities that did not take advantage of their vaccine vaccinations in the initial two or three waves, they can still get their vaccine, I encourage you to do so it appears to be working within that population of individuals, we'll have more information as the weeks go by. Lastly, in closing the same song that I always have for you all, and that is, remember to wear your mask, wash your hands and keep your distance. It is easy to become fatigued about this disease. We are winning, we're getting ahead of this, but we need to continue to use the mask. This is an effective way of preventing transmission, and it works. But now is not the time to fall away from that habit that you have all developed. And I want to encourage it and continue to remind you all that we need to keep distancing keep washing our hands and wearing the mask. So I'll stop here and turn it over to
Thank you Governor Thank you Dr. Romero. Yesterday Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield along with several key business and community partners launched the vaccinate the natural state initiative to encourage our Kansans to get their COVID-19 vaccination as soon as it becomes available to them. There are two areas of focus of this initiative. One is around business to business engagement, and the other is around community engagement. And much of the work related to vaccines so far has been focused on expanding distribution, increasing supply and making the initial demand especially among our seniors, and that's exactly where our focus should be. But as you heard earlier, we expect to see a substantial increase in the supply of vaccines over the next couple of months, and must be working now to make sure there's great demand for that supply. We know there are high levels of hesitancy about accepting the vaccine and challenges with getting the vaccines to our most vulnerable populations. Through the vaccinate the natural state initiative, we plan to take actions to overcome the hesitancy concerns and access issues as excellent as vaccine supply increases. We have partnered with the Arkansas State chamber the Arkansas foundation for medical care, the Northwest Arkansas Council and Walmart on the business to business engagement. We'll be providing objective information, educational resources, video modules, communication toolkits, and outreach to support to empower businesses across the state and help guide them through the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. Surveys show that employees are increasingly looking to their employers as a trusted source of information. We believe employers have crucial roles to play in building public confidence, overcoming hesitancy, and providing access to vaccines and that they are eager to fill those roles. We'll also be asking businesses to take a pledge that reflects their commitment to do their part to end the pandemic. For community engagement. Our partners include the Arkansas Department of Health under Dr. Romero's leadership, the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, the Northwest Arkansas Council, usms, Walmart and the state's community pharmacies, hospitals and community health centers. We plan to reach individuals statewide with targeted information about the vaccine, encouragement to get a vaccination and access to the vaccines. Our community engagement efforts will focus on all our Kansans but especially those facing health disparities. We know that to successfully engage those underserved populations the message must come from someone they trust in a language and format they understand and vaccinations must be provided in a place where they feel comfortable and safe. It is our hope and our intention that through these partnerships and by including other sessions, and but in by channeling our collective expertise, relationships and resources, we will feel a movement in our state That will result in a vast majority of eligible Arkansans being vaccinated so that we can end the suffering and start the process of returning our lives back to a sense of normal, we invite everyone to join us in this movement, as we vaccinate the natural state.
Thank you, Curtis. And thank you for your leadership and partnership on this important initiative. And I've asked Secretary Katie's give a brief report from education. And we'll turn it over for questions.
Thank you, Governor. In the aftermath of last week's winter storms and the record cold temperatures, many of our school leaders around the state returned to their campuses to find extensive extensive damage, damage to reduce damage to water systems, damage to heating, ventilation, air conditioning systems. So many of our students are still having to go to school virtually right now, because of the damage that occurred in those buildings. We are working closely through our division of public school, academic facilities and transportation with those districts to understand the extent of the damage, to partner with them and help them in any way that we can provide the remedies, to the repairs, and the mitigation to any of the impacts that it had on those classroom spaces. We will continue to monitor this and provide updates to the governor and to the appropriate emergency management agencies as we move forward. But it is our goal to get those facilities up and running again as soon as possible. So those students can return to their classrooms.
With that, we'll turn it over for questions. I see that hand. Yeah.
So up until now, the age 65 to 69 was in group one, C. And so now it seems like they've been moved to one B. And meanwhile, they're still the other people who won't be like grocery store workers or factory workers are not yet eligible. So just wondering what was the reason for for going to the 65 and older instead of continuing with the other one the population?
Well, Dr. Romero, let you answer that first. And I'll have a follow up.
So we know that a significant number of those individuals have comorbid conditions, and they're at higher risk for adverse outcomes. When the Secretary of Health and Human Services opened that possibility to all states, we looked at our vaccine supply here. And we thought that 70 and above would be the appropriate way. At this point, what we're seeing is more increase in increases in vaccine, it's available, I think that the vast majority of states in the country have moved to 65. And I think that it's appropriate at this time the government is so in depth discussions on this, and I'm fully on board with this.
There's two objectives in the vaccines. One is to keep essential services moving, that's one of the reasons that we moved educators into a quicker category, because education is so critical. The other objective is to save lives. And whenever you look at the lives have been lost. It's those that are the older age category, and 65 adding to that make sense in terms of those priorities.
One other issue, the emergency declaration expired, pretty thin. And you've asked the legislature to pass a resolution affirming that the emergency. So do you still want them to do that? And if they don't act, are you going to send the emergency?
I will, it is necessary to extend the emergency the current emergency expires on February 27, which is around the corner. We're already drafting that to be able to issue an extension. And this is really in coordination with the legislature that that gives them additional time to act. I know that there is legislation being worked on by Senator Hamer, and Representative gaz gassaway with a leadership that will re define the emergency Powers Act. And so we're looking forward to that new procedure that will give the legislature an opportunity to review the emergency declaration and and to take action on it if they disagree with it. Are there questions of remotely?
Gov? This is Andrew with AP. on going back to the vaccination eligibility, what do you see is the timeline for expanding it further? And also on the emergency declaration, how long of an extension Are you planning on issuing for the next extension of the declaration
in terms of the next categories, and when we'll get to those, it all depends upon supply. And I'm encouraged by the increase in supply that's coming from the federal government. And if that increase continues, then we're going to get to those categories more quickly. I know that there is a great need for it. And so I think we're on schedule as we move through our priorities. But it all depends upon the supply. And so I'm not going to give an estimation now or prediction as to where we will be able to move again, it all depends upon how quickly we can move these 110,065 plus through there to finish with our 70 plus age group. And whenever we see the demand slacking off, then we will be able to move to a another category in terms of the length of the emergency. that's currently in draft form and discussion forum. So I'll wait and announce that whenever we actually sign that which will be in the next couple of days. Next question.
Hi, this is Benji Hardy, the Arkansas nonprofit news network. So two questions. First off, do you have numbers on how many people in the 70 plus category have yet to receive a vaccine roughly? And second, why has the state not set up any kind of a centralized point of entry or hotline for for folks to use? It seems like in many cases that, you know, contacting individual pharmacies is working well. But I know some states that have achieved results with having a hotline or perhaps navigators guides to offer personal assistance is why isn't Arkansas done anything like that?
It's a very good question. And we have discussed many different options in terms of being able to have the most efficient system for vaccination. And if we tried to develop a centralized system, then we would be calling local pharmacies to actually make the appointments. It is more flexibility, it is more manageable, dealing with that at the local level. And good illustration is the pharmacy that I went to last Saturday in which the pharmacies developed a consolidated list. They're working together, they're in Sebastian County. And that helps us with eliminating the duplication will contain and there is a centralized way to get information, you can go to our Department of Health website, you can see exactly where your providers are, and your options are for vaccination. And then you can take action. And then thirdly, it is important that we rely upon some of our voluntary organizations, our volunteers and our local communities that are really being helpful in assisting someone to get their vaccine vaccination. And those volunteers are all at the local level primarily, and can be better utilized in that fashion. So it's a system that's working well for us. And we'll continue to work in that direction. And then I'm going to invite Dr. Romero to comment on the numbers in terms of the 70 plus. And then Colonel later if you had any comment. In addition, on the last point, I will say on the 70 plus as to the numbers. I think Dr. Romero will indicate we don't have precise numbers. We have antidotal evidence we have took a survey from our COVID taskforce this morning and you had varying degrees, some parts of the state said, we're done. We need to move on other parts of the state say, well, we're still working on our 70 plus. And so there's really only estimations that we have. that's available by Dr. Merrill.
So we are getting finer and finer detail on that right now. We have a gross estimate. Our epidemiologists are using internal database bank basis to correlate with those individuals vaccinated. We should have more Concrete data towards the end of this week, and hopefully next week, we'll be able to give you a running total on this. But we have some data on this, but not as the governor said. It's in generalities at this point. And we're looking at race and ethnicity. Dr. Porter, did you did you have data there that you wanted to share? I'm sorry. 14% 14%. So hot off the press 14% of, of 17 year old and older, have been fully vaccinated, that does not take into account those that have received one dose that's fully vaccinated?
Well, also, you know, the two parts of the question, first off, you know, what we're seeing, just by straight demographics, that, you know, the number of that that was just reported about completely vaccinated, keep in mind that that is that takes us a month to get that fully vaccinated state. So you know, what I'm seeing. And again, this is anecdotal, but we were looking at it every day. And through the demographics that were somewhere around 50% of that demographic, you know, we were trying to use 70. But we don't have hard data on on uptake. And so that's where the challenge lies. Now, as for the question about the centralized scheduling program, it's just that we have so many partners that have disparate of different systems to do this, that we were, we were kind of reticent to, to go down that pathway. You know, we have a very, very flexible system. But one of the key parts to this is that we set in the model, that we had a consistent flow of vaccine going out to our providers. What this is translated to is now our providers feel comfortable with setting out appointments into the future. So they're in a better position to be able to give us future appointments so that you know, when the vaccine comes to them, because they're going to get a consistent flow of vaccine coming to them, that, you know, they're willing to set, you know, appointments out three weeks in a month in advance. So you know, I think altogether, we're getting there. But also keep in mind what the governor announced last week, where we were talking about bringing in the local health units to help us get to, so we're going to be looking at some regional health units that that'll be doing it to help some of these underserved communities, and ones that have kind of a lack of an ability to get online to be able to schedule these points, and we're going to be able to system that way.
Another question? Hey, guys,
this is Chelsea Helms with KNWA / fox 24 in Fayetteville. You mentioned the state's partnership to distribute the COVID-19 vaccines with several pharmacies across the state. We've been getting a lot of viewer messages saying they've called into these pharmacies across Northwest Arkansas, specifically Walgreens, and they're being told they haven't received vaccinations some in the last four weeks, so almost a month now. So what do you have to say to this? And then what do you have to say to the people who are trying their best to get on these lists to know success?
I think currently, you probably need to address the supply chain there, the Walgreens and the CVS. They have a federal separate partnership for distributing their doses. And they first utilized it for the long term care facilities they fulfill that we've been working to get the excess supply back to the local pharmacy. And so that's really dependent upon them to get it in their in their local Walgreens or their CVS facility. And until they get those out, there's not going to be an increased supply their Walmart's in a separate category because they're part of the Federal pharmacy program. They get their supply directly each week from the federal government and from the manufacturer. And that supply should be consistent. Colonel.
Thank you, sir. Yeah, so very simply, the governor is absolutely on point with this is that CVS and Walgreens were part of the Federal long term care facility program. So they were they pulled state allocation. And then we're able to pull both first and second dose allocation, to be able to go out and vaccinate our long term care facilities that were enrolled in the long term care facility, the national program. So what we were able to do is, as we got through the first round clinics, we had a better picture of what that uptake was and what vaccine that we could reclaim. So we've been able to reclaim on the order of somewhere around 30,000 doses which at the time was a very Four weeks worth of doses for the entire state. You know, as we get through, we're pretty much done with our second round clinics. And we're getting into third round clinics, they'll be, excuse me, we'll be pulling back some more vaccine as we go forward. CVS is not one of our normal providers, and we're not bringing them in quite yet, because we don't have the volume of vaccine to actually use them. So once they burn through this allocation that we reclaimed from the long term care facility program, then they will no longer have vaccine. And then at that point, we will look at them for as we expand the network.
In terms of the citizens of Northwest Arkansas, that's looking for an opportunity to be vaccinated, whenever it's in their turn. First of all, keep following. There's going to be this Friday, a mass vaccination clinic that Northwest Arkansas is putting on, they focused on the 70. Plus, most of those appointments very well will be filled. But there'll be other mass vaccination clinics, there's going to be expanded opportunities with the pharmacies and so continue to talk to your local pharmacy. If there do not have any doses, you can talk to another pharmacy, and you're going to have to get on the list. And it's going to take some time, it's not going to happen necessarily tomorrow, but you get on a list. And as soon as that vaccinate your time comes there, they'll call you for your appointment for that vaccine. And so continue to work on it Be patient, there's a great demand for that. And with the added 65. Plus, there's even going to be more demand. But we've got to continue to work together to make sure they have that opportunity.
Good afternoon, Governor it's Brett Raines with 4029 News. Can you? What marks are - What are you looking at when it comes to considerations for lifting restrictions imposed to the to the executive orders in general? And then specifically, for example,for private businesses with capacity restrictions in that search? What are we looking for? What are you considering?
We'll continue to look at that every day. And no one wants to lift restrictions on businesses more than than than I do. And whenever you look at the cases that we have now, one of the benchmarks is to look at where we have been historically, and at what point did we put those restrictions on, and when can we be comfortable to lift it based upon that historical data? Secondly, we are concerned about the potential for additional variants, and, and whether this trend of downward case is going to continue. So it's premature at this point, I'm looking for opportunities to do it. It really depends upon each specific business and, and the nature of that business. If you look at restaurants, for example, the two thirds capacity, that might be able to be adjusted at some point. But the spacing distance continues to be important, until we get a greater percent of our population vaccinated. And so those requirements for restaurants are good for the restaurant employees and their safety as well as for the patrons that go there and to their own business models. So we'll continue to look for ways to enhance their capability of providing the service in this at the same time doing it in a safe way. And we hope that we can continue to make progress on the cases. Next question, if there is any.
Governor, this is Josh with KAIT. Bouncing off of that question. You and I talked about this a little last week. Could you not tweak the restaurant directive to where anybody with 100 people or less could go to full capacity? I'm not. Again, I'm not understanding why the ballroom at the Embassy Suites can have 100 people but the restaurant on Main Street jonesborough that can also put 100 people in safely distance and be at 100%. Why we can't why we can't mesh those two.
That is something that is worth looking at. There are some distinctions there, as we talked about last week, and I've talked to my health department on those. But that's an example of things that we can continue to look at. Thank you, Josh. And then we have one final question here.
Getting back to the emergency separation. Are you expecting any effort in the legislature to resend the emergency declaration?
Well, I would expect a vote. That is like everybody expected the legislature to take a look at that. And that is prerogative that they've had under the current emergency act. And it's something that would be their opportunity to do under any revised legislation. So I fully expect that there will be a consideration by the legislature on the continuation of the emergency. So we'll see how that develops. But I expect that further beyond that, you probably would have to talk to the members of the General Assembly. Thank you for your attention today. Thank you.