Thank you for joining me for today's additional COVID update on a couple of important issues that deserve to be covered today. And quickly. I first want to thank Secretary Romero for joining us today, as well as Secretary Johnny key of the Department of Education. We also have Chris Barber, CEO of health center in Jonesboro, that's joining us remotely. And thank you, Chris, for joining us today who is also a member of our task force. And let me first remark that I would say had to learn to the death of Sergeant buck dancy yesterday, who is the first officer to die in the line of duty as a result of COVID-19 and the apprehension and processing of a suspect. I talked to Chief Ralston, I talked to bucks daughter as well shortly ago and expressed the condolences of the state of Arkansas in appreciation for buck service. Everybody speaks so highly of him in terms of his demeanor, his encouragement of his faith, the fact that he was an officer since 1985. And as a result of that, have signed a proclamation, recognizing Sergeant dancy is dying in the line of duty, and that the flag will be lowered for as of today, pursuant to proclamation until the time of his memorial service. And so please accept our condolences appreciation and gratefulness for his service. And now let me go to the next graph, which is really the purpose of us gathering today, which is to announce the new quarantine guidelines that have been broadly discussed, as a result of CDC changing their policies and recommendations on quarantine guidelines. So the Department of Health has been working to implement this in Arkansas, and to make it fit for our state. And I wanted to go through this with you. And so we are will be substantially adopting the CDC recommendations in terms of quarantine. And there's three reasons for this shortened quarantine time, and that is that the data shows that after the initial seven days, there's a much lower percent chance, very small percent chance of becoming positive. Secondly, of the difficulties that this puts on individuals and families and communities and teachers and everyone else because of the length of that quarantine. And the third reason the CDC cited was that it is their hope that this will encourage compliance, that more people will be acceptance of the quarantine requirements, will be willing to identify those that might have been exposed because it is a shortened timeframe. And so I appreciate the Department of Health working quickly on this. And so as they point out that the safest will be a full 14 days of quarantine, and the but you can be released from quarantine after 10 days with no testing. But if you get a test, it can be released from seven after seven days of quarantine. And so the task could be done on day five, it has to be done within 48 hours. So that if you're negative it could be released on day seven from the quarantine, the Department of Health will be releasing guidelines on their website. And Dr. Romero will have more to say about this. But there will be some fine tuning in reference to our long term care facilities, our congregate facilities because of their unique environment. And they will have a different testing regime to be able to come out of the quarantine. And we wanted to draw attention to that distinction. So that would be our long term care facilities, as well as in the prison environment that will be distinguished from the standard rules that will be applied. I want to also announce and we'll see the reason for this as we have the continued growth in cases in Arkansas, but that I've requested from the FEMA Federal Emergency Management administration, that we be allocated 10 hospital beds in the Veterans Administration hospital here in Little Rock there include five ICU beds as well as five medical surgical beds so that We can have an expanded capacity here in Arkansas. And this will be particularly helpful as we bring trauma con online that will help us to allocate the COVID patients among a broader range of facilities that can offer the bed space that's needed. This will be at a cost of $1.9 million for 30 days, the stage share this will be right at about $500,000. I've approved this that request is going through, it has not been approved yet. But we hope that it will be approved within the next 24 hours. And I want to thank the VA hospital for their willingness to be helpful as well and for their capacity that they can put into the state system. Let me go to our case report. And we'll cover this in a briefer fashion than normal. But we don't we do want to give due attention to the fact that our total case increase in the last 24 hours has been 2007 and 89, which is the largest increase in new cases since the pandemic began. Of those Of course, that's a combination of our confirmed cases of 12,000 excuse me of 2017 new cases and new probable cases of 772. Our testing has been stronger the PCR test are coming back in. And so we've had 13,000 round numbers of PCR tests, and our antigen tests have picked up as well with 2945 antigen tests. In the last 24 hours, our hospitalizations has decreased 16. And that is helpful news. But we also know with the increasing cases that that could be a temporary reprieve. And we want to be prepared as if the hospitalizations go up again. In terms of our deaths, very sadly, we have 33 additional deaths in the last 24 hours that have been reported. Remarkably, during the last 24 hours and the new cases, if you look at the counties for the first time, we have three counties Washington County, Benton County and Pulaski County, all with over 200 new cases. We have in terms of the counties with additional cases, usually I report, those that have that have 20 cases are more in a county. And that is generally in the range of maybe 10 counties that have 20 cases or more. We now have 32 counties that have over 20 new cases in the last 24 hours. This is a message to everyone that wherever you are in the state of Arkansas, that there are increased number of COVID cases, increase level of spread. And you have to protect yourself you have to wear your mask and keep the social distance. And if you can avoid avoid a social gathering over 10. That's something that you should do. That would be helpful unless they have all the precautions in place and wearing a mask and have the meet the guidelines of the Department of Health. With that. Let me ask Dr. Romero to make his comments. And then Secretary key to comment this impact on education. And then I'll come back to recognize Chris Barber.
Thank you, Governo. To add little bit more detail on what the governor explained about quarantine. It's important to note that these recommendations for core for shortening quarantine are as stated, but they also need to keep the patient needs to keep in mind that he should or she should be asymptomatic at the time. So no symptoms whatsoever. The modifications for quarantine will also be applied to long term congregate facilities nursing homes, as well as the correctional settings they will be a little stricter, requiring testing before removing the quarantine. And that is because in those centers, the spread can occur quickly and can have in particular in nursing homes, devastating effects as we've talked about in the past. It's important also to note that, that even with a test, there is a small chance that you can continue to spread the virus that's about 4% with a PCR test and about 5.5 or 6% with an antigen test. The Health Department recommends having an antigen test done. We will do them at our local health units if you call ahead and make an appointment, we have antigen tests available at the schools that can be used for children that are on quarantine. Again, I want to stress the importance of being asymptomatic when you leave quarantine. Lastly, as the governor has pointed out, we are seeing an increasing number of cases in our state. Unfortunately, I believe this is going to continue. This does not mean that we can become lacks in the use of the mask, distancing and hand washing now's the time to become even more stringent. This can be cut this will spread if we do not attempt to bring it under control. We There is still time to slow this slow this spread. But we must do our share. This is a public responsibility. This is not the responsibility of a single person or a single organization. Without your help, this can't be brought under control.
Thank you, Governor.
Thank you, Governor. Thank you, Dr. Merrill. The news about the modifications to the quarantine guidance now is very welcome news for schools around the state. When you look at our data and the reasons that schools have had to pivot to virtual learning, it has primarily been because of the number of quarantine individuals, whether they be staff, faculty, or students. It's because of the numbers of quarantines and then the lack of sufficient substitutes. So this shortened timespan will be very beneficial to our schools. It will help them establish shorter times that they will have to pivot in every day that we can salvage and save for on site learning for our students is going to be a better day of education for them. It's also I think it's very good to warn ourselves, though, and be cautious that this does not give us a reason to get lacks in our following the guidance in the schools. We still need to follow the social distancing, we still need to follow the hand washing in the mask wearing in the schools. These things working together will help us continue to have a successful school year.
Thank you. And now Chris barber who's joined us remotely from Jonesboro, the CEO of St. Bernard's Health Center, who's in Chris is a very instrumental member of our winter COVID Task Force. Chris, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Governor. You know, the updated guidance we just heard from the CDC is certainly some welcome news. He time we can reduce the length of quarantine and provide some flexibility for individuals, for families, for schools for employers, that's a positive step. We are we've all been burdened with quarantine at some level throughout the pandemic. With this recent announcement, we're pleased to see the individual be able to get back to their daily lives, your daily routines and responsibilities sooner in this process. This will also allow us hopefully to see better compliance and hopefully better contact tracing to reduce the spread. Now on a broader note, in the healthcare field, we're encouraged by some of the recent developments. You've heard some of the new outpatient therapeutics that we can do, such as monoclonal antibodies that can be administer for those at risk patients in a different setting, and hopefully prevent acute or hospitalized patients. This is good news for us. On top of that, you've been reading quite a bit about the upcoming announcement about vaccines in the very near future. We'll have that in the state. And we'll be rolling that out that coming months ahead. So those are positive steps. I want to just share that the COVID-19 winter Task Force is working hard to develop strategies and solutions, really to look at measures to reduce the spread. In addition to enhance coordination throughout the state for all our Canton to utilize our resources appropriately. Sometimes they're limited or scarce. But we want to make sure we're providing quality care for patients at the right place at the right time in the right location for all our Kansans. your healthcare team have done a tremendous job. But I will say at this point I would be remiss if I didn't clearly articulate that went to Poland us for the next two or three months is very challenging. The health care system in the state will be stretched and challenge but at a level we've never experienced before. We're up for the task is gonna take all of us and you heard earlier. It's gonna Take everyone pulling in the same direction, we're going to encourage the basic building blocks because we know they were, you've heard everyone talk about wearing your mask appropriately, wearing your mask, washing your hands, social distancing, avoiding gatherings or large crowds, we certainly want individuals to be mindful when they're in an indoor venue of your circumstances. We want to promote safe and creative ways to celebrate the holidays, Christmas and New Year's, with your family members and friends. But I will say the next two or three months are gonna be critical as we navigate this water, we need to really double down our efforts and work together. There is light at the end of the tunnel. But it's critical over the next couple of months to really preserve our resources as we enter this time period. So with that, we want to thank you in advance for your assistance. And Governor, I'll pass it back to you.
Thank you, Chris. And there might be some questions. So stay tuned. And with that, we're happy to turn the floor open for questions. Leslie.
Secretary key parents, they contacted us and said, in Little Rock School District, consider they had a active shooter drill, which required everybody to kind of gather together in a corner. And they were concerned about that I asked the Little Rock School District and I said, Well, that's a state law. You know, that's something they impose. And so are you still doing active shooter drills?
There are a number of drills that we have waived the requirements on, I'd have to get more specific information about which ones, obviously, because of the change in circumstances this year, we had issued guidance early this year about modifying some of those types of safety drills, tornado drills, fire drills, active shooter drills. So I can't speak specifically about this one you've you've raised, but well, they should do it with modifications, they should, you know, taking into account all the safety precautions that we have the time factors. And if they cannot be done safely, then they should contact us to let us know or ask us for additional guidance.
Governor, I wondered if you had a response to the opinion poll today that the former retired Chief Medical Officer for Arkansas had a column in the Arkansas democrat Gazette in which he said state and federal leaders need to ask people to sacrifice and close down bars and restaurants and like that, did you read that?
I've not read that column that you're referencing. Certainly it is a time for all of us to pull together. We've been urging that will continue to urge that and it is time as Chris barber is said as Dr. Romero is said, for everyone to do what is necessary. We try to set the right example. We have Terry Paul is here, who we are, who is our enforcement leader there at the Department of Health on our guidelines. We had a discussion today as to how we can do more to assure compliance. And so we'll continue to do that. So it's both a balance of everybody taking responsibility. But also, we want to make sure that we do all we can to assure that compliance
human life stop closed bars and restaurants and non essential businesses. That's not something
I think I've answered that question. Yes, Alex,
um, you said that shorting these quarantines might help with compliance has compliance been an issue with the 14 day quarantine?
What I meant by that, of course, in this is a CDC reference that whenever you do the contact tracing, somebody who is positive might be hesitant to identify someone else because it's going to mean 14 days of quarantine. And so there's that hesitancy and then you have others that say, I don't want to impose that on myself out I want to report that because of how long that quarantine is. And so the hope would be that whenever we take these steps that it will increase compliance and understand the critical importance of those first seven to 10 days particularly Dr. America anything else to add on that? Okay.
Yeah, hospital bed, the $1.9 million? Is that where's that coming from?
So 75% of that will be the federal cost share. It's as a result of our emergency that we need this to have happened. And so 25% will be the state cost share. And so we're very grateful for those federal resources we can call upon. No, this is something that's already been approved by the legislature as part of the normal emergency response capability that we have. And so that, that is in the same capacity that we respond to a tornado, through emergency management. we're responding to this pandemic, by utilizing previously budgeted resources for this purpose.
Yes, pretty strong statements made by Dr. Cam Patterson on Twitter today regarding know their plans to look for a potential temporary, more warning people that they might be doing family funerals, instead of family Christmas this year. Are you when you hear these things? Are you afraid?
am I afraid? No, I'm not afraid. But I'm focused. And I'm focused on the issues ahead as to what we need to do to get ready for what everybody expects to be a very difficult December, I'm encouraged by the fact that we have vaccines in production, waiting for FDA approval, I'm encouraged by the fact that people are, are wearing mask, and that they're limiting their activities out of responsibility. And, and I'm encouraged by people pulling together to get through this and recognize and it's going to be a different kind of a Christmas. So I'm encouraged by those things. And I'm focused on what exactly we need to do as a state, you could see the level of focus in terms of hospital capacity. But you also much behind the scenes is being done in terms of compliance efforts and making sure that everybody is doing what they should be doing, whether it is by education, or whether it's by more forceful action of the Department of Health. And so it's to me, not a time for fear, but it's a time for action. And it's a time for resolve. And I'm resolved to make sure that we can get through this well. Let's go remotely have any questions
want to ask you about the vaccination vaccination distribution plan for the States? The the draft plan, I guess back from October had listed for phase one B for one of the one of the higher priorities of poultry workers as part of that, as part of that phase one to see if you can talk about I guess, the reason for having it having poultry workers at a higher priority than the need for that. And if that is still part of the plan, and how exactly that would work, especially with a limited limited supply, kind of how would you How would you approach that? Well,
my focus has been first in terms of the one A, which are the vaccines for the healthcare workers, for those that are long term care facilities. And it's going to take us a while to get through the first priority of one a, and then you go to more of the essential worker categories, which is very broad. We're still refining that but Dr. Romero, did you want to make a comment? He's worked very hard on this.
So the prioritization for phase one B is currently underway and under discussion by the ACI p I chair, that committee by the CDC, we view these workers as essential. We know that these workers have been the brunt of large outbreaks not only in our state, but also in other states. We have a moral and ethical imperative to care for all populations within our country. It is one of the pillars of action within the CDC to address this disparity that has occurred in the past. So we will use vaccine that is available to us and appropriately distributed to high risk groups within one B area. I will work with the governor to make sure that we get that vaccine into those populations that need it. Thank you.
Next question.
Hey, Governor, this is charged Quark with ke RT I'm one of the comments that you made was that now's the time. For action, and with us being literally 15 days before the Christmas break, why not move schools from middle school to high school? virtual to try to lessen the burden?
answered answer is, is because school is important. And because each of these school districts right now, if their cases or their staff is in a situation that you have absences that you can go virtual. And so we have a very good system that emphasizes the opportunity for in classroom instruction, with the option to go virtual as needed, that pivoting that that ability to be flexible, has served our school districts very well. And we want to be able to continue to serve the students because that's the safest environment for them to be in the school to have the protections that are there. And the instruction that is so necessary. Next question, Governor,
good afternoon, it's Neil glessner. In kg mg and hot springs, can we drill down a little more on the quarantine change? Because I note that it's very specific at day seven, if you have a PCR test, is there any guidance in there about antigen test, which a lot of people prefer? Because you get the results back quicker? And aren't we using a lot of antigen tests in the school? So I wonder how that helps the situation Secretary he was talking about? Thank you.
Yes, and that we had a conversation on that. And and while that does reference a PCR test, the test will be workable if it's an antigen test, because that's what is so available can be available in the schools. that's available, as Dr. Romero said in our health departments. And so thank you for catching that, Neil. And that the release from quarantine is applicable. If it is a PCR test or an antigen test. Dr. Romero did make the point that people need to be aware that they should be known have any symptoms, they have to comply with all the guidelines and take the appropriate precautions, but an antigen test will be sufficient.
This is David Ramsey with the Arkansas nonprofit News Network regarding the VA beds. Can you speak to kind of how the the arrangement came together? I know you've put in the request to FEMA, but was there kind of upfront negotiation with the VA? Were there requests along these lines from from hospitals? Can you kind of speak to how you come up with the number with the number 10? And could you also, could you also speak to just kind of what is prompting this request? Is this a sign that capacity is showing some strain or what what prompted it now?
Good question. And the answer is it's really preparing for what could be challenges in the next three weeks. And so while I'm confident that our hospitals can meet the need of today, with stress, not easy, but they've been flexible to accomplish it. This gives some added relief. And and as Chris barber indicated, we're looking at other ways to relieve pressure, whether it's through therapeutics that are in the non hospital setting, or whether it is making sure that we can move non COVID patients out quickly and we continue to work on the right waivers so that those can be moved quickly, as needed without delay. And let me invite Chris Barber, did you want to add anything to this in terms of where we are right now in our hospital capacity? And and where this could be a cushion for the future? Chris?
Yes, sir. Governor, so we had a little over 1050 hospitalized patients today. And that was down a little bit as you heard, but we're concerned you know, when you see the numbers go up the next two to four weeks because hospitalizations are typically a lagging indicator. So hospitals have been updating their surge plans. We are looking out into the future. With the governor mentioned we appreciate the step to add additional capacity. So that is a proactive move to create and capacity for worse. As you all heard, hospital administration been working hard over the last several months and planning one to build up the PP with support from Governor and the legislature with ventilators, beds etc. The real challenge right now is staffing. So we've got to be competitive to be able to secure staffing resources here at this point in time, we're recruiting against other parts of the country and throughout the nation. So we're continuing to monitor that closely, folks are extremely busy trying to build additional capacity as we move forward into the next one to two to three months.
And let me add, David, because you asked a couple of different parts to that. And this has been in discussion for probably the last week, one, being aware that there was that capacity at the VA hospital, sadly checking with our winner COVID Task Force and the hospital administrators there in terms of the need, and they recommended now's the time let's pursue that. And then working with a director, AJ Gary, so it's a process to get there. But it's really forward looking into the future. And I'm glad Chris barber made the point about the staffing and the needs of the hospital. That's one of the reasons I applaud the General Assembly and their support for the funding out of the cares act for our hospitals. And our steering committee approved $50 million 30 million, I believe it is for the hospitals and 20 million for long term care facilities to help them to meet these pressing needs. Next question. Okay.
Magnolia reporter.com.
In March, when comparatively speaking,
there were a few COVID cases, the site decided that it was important to issue bonuses to health care workers, because,
as you said, we're going to need these people
now that we've reached a tipping point in the
pandemic, when it would say we really, really need these people, will you propose a new round of bonuses?
Not at this time, simply because our cares Act funding has run out if Congress allocates additional funding that could be looked at. But as you recall, it's not just a matter of hospital workers that are on the front line, but our emergency medical technicians, we provided relief for them, you have those that are on the front line in our long term care facilities. So there's a lot of people that are on the front line. And once you start with one there has there has to be multiple, clearly our medical personnel has additional needs because of the competitiveness and their salaries and the demand for them across the country. And so hopefully, the money that's being allocated, the hospitals will be of some relief, and they could use it as they see fit to make sure they have adequate staffing in their hospitals. As to the future. It's always on the table. It all depends upon what the resources are, that would be available.
Next question.
Governor, this is Josh McKay RT, something that Chris barber brought up. And I know that you did, as well as that you guys are being very proactive with creating spaces for patients and everything. But there seems to be a little bit of a lack of trying to restrict the numbers coming in. It's good to be proactive. But if we're not cracking down on the increasing numbers, you can only be proactive to a certain extent. How do you balance those two, because few people are commenting that we are not balancing it? Well, here in Arkansas?
Well, we are working on the cases that would generate cases coming in on the front to the hospital. So that is a matter of constant work and effort. We've had meetings on this, we've had action items on this today. And we will continue to do that. And so we're very mindful of the pressure on our hospitals. And that whenever you have 2789 new cases that ultimately, some of those are going to be hospitalized. So so we understand that pressure. And so every day, we enlist the support of our Kansans, we increase our compliance efforts. And we review where our cases are that perhaps we can make a difference that can reduce those so we're not neglecting that that's an action item every day and we'll continue to be last question here at the table.
If there was a new federal relief, though, like another caravan, would that change your thinking about placing additional restrictions on businesses if there was support available and how would I respond to being affected by the lack of federal funding?
So the the most important question is, where are the cases coming from And would anybody at this table advocate to close down a restaurant if cases are not coming from that restaurant? Or they're not coming from a particular activity or a gym? Do you want to close down a gym and an investment? If there's not any cases that come from there, and they're in full compliance with all of our public health guidelines? That's the first question. And I asked that question of our health department officials, and the vast majority of cases are coming from social gatherings that we can identify, and we can't regulate the home. We can't regulate the church. And we've talked about those environments. And so we have to make good judgments there we are looking at what more we can do to reduce indoor gatherings of people in larger crowds than 10. So we are looking at what we need to do. And it's not, you know, for example, right now, if you want to have an indoor gathering greater than 100 people, you have to have approval from the Department of Health and submit a plan. And so one of the things that we're looking at, and I'm giving everybody a heads up on this, that we may be announcing that that requirements going to be reduced down so that if you're going to have a gathering of, of 20 people indoors, in a social environment or in an event atmosphere, then you have to get a plan approved by the Department of Health. And so we're looking at that, and that's a heads up so that, and already people are reducing the request of indoor events. Why are they doing that because they know they're at risk because of our encouragement to reduce those. And so those are even requesting plan to be submitted the Department of Health, those numbers are going down. But we want that oversight. We want Terry Paul's team to be out there. to a greater extent, we've talked about that, we hope to have some announcements with regard to that next week. So nothing definitive there. But that's an example of, we want to look at where cases are coming from and what we can do about it, many of the areas are out of reach for us. But the areas that we can impact we want to now the question was, does it make a difference whether there's funding that comes to the federal government? Sure, it's a factor. But the first question is, are there cases coming out of a particular activity, if there's cases coming out of a particular activity, then you can make a decision to put more restrictions on and then you're putting people out of work? You're putting businesses out of work? And obviously, whenever you can have a relief package for that, that would be helpful. But we're not there yet.
That number of people gathering, wouldn't that also reduce the number of people in restaurants just
No, no, because in restaurants, there's a two thirds capacity. And there's a restriction of 10, a limit of 10 at one table. And so it doesn't impact that if you reduce other gatherings in a similar fashion. Now, it does have an impact. And we already have our rules for, you know, the school athletic facilities indoors, those are covered, following the guidelines. But there's still some activities that are going on, we've got a list of probably 100 that have applied for approval of plans, well, that's going to get tighter, and that's going to have more scrutiny. And we're going to have more inspection of those in the future. And as well as looking at reducing the requirement for submitting a plan but that does not impact the restaurants that you mentioned. Thank you all very much.