201117_COVID-19 Press Briefing
JJeremy MayNov 18, 2020 at 3:06 am47min
GGovernor Asa Hutchinson
00:00Thank you for joining me for today's COVID-19 weekly update. pleased to be joined by Secretary Jose Romero, the Department of Health, as well as Secretary Johnny key of the Department of Education. And today we have Secretary Stacy Hurst of the Department of Parks heritage and tourism. To give an important update on a business interruption grant program that will reference a little bit later. I also have who will be speaking director Mike Moore, of our enforcement division at the Department of Finance on the regulatory side, who has really been engaged with his team in enforcement efforts and compliance efforts with our restaurants with our businesses. And Terry Paul is here also from the Department of Health, who works in the broad areas of compliance, and we wanted to give an update in those regards. I did want to report first that the winner COVID-19 Task Force has met. More importantly, they are continuing to meet in subcommittees. And this is a group that I've charged with responsibility in making some comments and advise me in particular areas. And I expect recommendations and counsel this week, in the areas of staffing shortages, statewide coordination of COVID, bed space, and also comments related to the slowing of the community spread, and whether there's any additional steps that are propriate to be taken. Now, let me caution you whenever I say I expect recommendations, you think there's going to be a written list of recommendations. That's not the case. These are conversations. These are this is counsel from some leading experts across Arkansas. And we will try to, we're looking for areas that can help in our staffing issues in our hospitals. But also when you look at the COVID bed space. We've coordinated it regionally very well, but we need to coordinate it statewide, as things get tighter. And so we're looking at ways that we, through the Department of Health and from my office can be helpful to address those particular needs. I did also want to add that later this week on Thursday. Specifically, I'll be having a conference call with Vice President Joe Biden, as well as his transition team. As in conjunction with my role on the executive committee and vice chair of the National Governors Association. That call is set up so that the Vice President Biden can get the information that he needs from the States as his transitions team starts to prepare for January 20. And what we expect will be a necessary transition. And that is important from my standpoint, so that they're aware of what we're doing as a state and what other states are doing to fight this pandemic. The White House report came out this week. And in the White House report, they use this language given the change in the slope in the last two weeks post Halloween. And this is specific to Arkansas. Arkansas is on the precipice of a rapid accelerating increase in cases which will be followed with new hospital admissions. In quote. Now, that's a statement they'll get your attention as a leader. And we look at the holiday season that is approaching. And we have to be mindful that if Arkansas continues at the present pace over the last two days, in Arkansas, we'll have an additional 1000 our Kansans that will die as a result of COVID-19 between now and Christmas. And that for anyone who wants to enjoy the cheer of Christmas is a is a cloud that hangs over us. And that should inspire us to do well, to follow the guidelines to do everything that we can to break that trend. And that is our goal. Let me go through the case report. For today. We have an additional 1554 cases over the last 24 hours. Those are combination of confirmed cases and probable cases. There were 1145 confirmed cases and there were 409 probable cases as a result of antigen or other criteria that was met.
GGovernor Asa Hutchinson
04:58The total Active cases are up 91. That gives us a total active cases of 16,576. And the hospitalizations have increased by 34. That brings us to 895 that had been hospitalized as a result of COVID-19 are currently hospitalized. That puts us on the verge of that 900 mark. We've had an increased number on ventilators as well as an increased number of deaths. As I mentioned, that deaths went up by 20. That gives us a total deaths of 2245. Our testing has been very significant as it continues to be, we had 7452 PCR tests this month, and we've had antigen test of 3234. And excuse me, these are the results over the last 24 hours 7452 PCR tests and 3234 antigen test. Dr. Romero will shed additional light on that here shortly. Let me go to our graphs that just illustrate what I've said in a different way. As you can see, our combination of of new cases, which are both probable and confirmed cases are up over 1500. Of course, it's not as high, but the weeks not over yet. And that's the challenge. We've got Wednesday, Thursday and Friday that had been historically higher days that we've got to worry about. Next is a trend line that goes up. And it's going to keep going up. Well, we'll see we'll see. Next one is the daily average of new confirmed and probable cases by week. And so you can see the trend line since September 6 through the 12th the first week, and it goes where we were flat for some time that gave us encouragement. And then we've had this as wideout says his escalation of cases over the last two weeks, and that is unacceptably too high. We have hospitalized as you can see, has reached almost the 900 mark, and it's gone up next, the seven day rolling average of positive PCR tests. This is just PCR tests. And this is important to note, as the White House noted that we were up in earlier July timeframe, over 10% positivity. And we worked hard, and we got that down. We got that down. And then it started going back up again. And you see where we finally tipped up over the 10% mark again. And so this is concerning now is down below it now but we know that that will be filled in with later test results that come in. So right now we're above the 10% positive tivity rate, which is a concern to us. Testing again, for the month thus far. And we're a little bit past the midway point 166,519 just PCR tests in Arkansas which demonstrates the demand but also the fact that we have the capacity that we're doing that testing. Next is the number of PCR test. By facility type we can look at that quickly and the darton Health I just want to brag on them, they've really done a remarkable job working 24 seven working very hard, long hours, and consistently adding and controlling our destiny in terms of the testing. The red is something that the public will always go to through their physician or hospital and the PCR testing through the commercial labs still remains very strong and the resources seem good. These are the antigen test seven day rolling average of antigen test and you can see where that positivity rate is high. It always is higher, but it's been actually where we first started, he got had that hype and it came it's coming back up to that same level of positivity in the mid 20s. I think that shows the same thing there in terms of our testing and our positive rate. The antigen test we can see is over 27,000 halfway through the month, exceeding our goals there as well.
GGovernor Asa Hutchinson
09:38I think that we do have the regions to cover. We have the orange which is the Northwest which is the seven day rolling average of new cases in the northwest is the top region followed by the blue which is the Northeast followed by the Central Arkansas which is right almost corresponding cross acting with northeast and then we have southeast and southwest at a more modest level. And the trend line is not as severe. If you look at the growth rate of cases, we have, you can see northeast and central are leading in terms of the growth rate by percentage of new cases, followed by the Southwest. The growth rate of by age group, and we can see, if you add zero to 17, and 18 to 24, together, zero 24 is 17.7% of our new cases are coming from that age group much more healthy. But still, it shows a significant number of new cases there. I was glad to see the 65 plus come down somewhat. And with that, Dr. Romero, if you will make your comments and then I will set the stage for the others to come.
DDr. Jose Romero
11:10Thank you, Governor.Thank you all. I'll add a little bit of detail to what has already been said. So, as mentioned, the number of deaths increased by 20. I want to point out that following the trend of deaths in the state, the majority of these cases have come from nursing homes, and individuals in concrete living centers. There's clearly a vulnerable population and a population that we're concerned about. And I'll come back to that in a minute. We have 23 counties which have reported a greater than 10. Sorry, greater than or equal to five cases. Last in the last 24 hours. We have three counties over 100. They are in decreasing order of number. Pulaski at 148, Washington 133 and Benton at one or two other counties to note White County at 67 Craighead at 63. And then both Faulkner and saline county at 59. I want to point out and place special emphasis on what the governor has already said. And what was in the White House report from yesterday. As is stated, I think for the first time and very poignant language, we are on the precipice of a significant and possibly an uncontrollable rise. In cases. This is like a boulder rolling down a hill, that will come a time where we cannot stop it. It will continue to escalate and will eventually overwhelm our healthcare facilities. Now is the time to act. And I cannot stress enough the importance of the three W's I'll say it again, I'm sorry, wear your mask, wash your hands, and watch your distance. Again, we're coming towards the holiday for Thanksgiving. Our elderly in nursing homes and congregate facilities are vulnerable. Bringing them to your home may be a detriment to their health. I really think that you need to consider this and consider postponing your Thanksgiving with them to a later date. It is for their safety. I understand this, the the situation that you all have you want to beat together, but it's a time to protect them and protect their lives. So I'll stop here and turn it back over to the governor. Thank you.
GGovernor Asa Hutchinson
13:48We talked briefly about compliance. The Department of Health has done over 3500 compliance checks. Since toward the end of June. We've had director Mike Moore and his team have done over 3700 compliance checks, if sided, hundred 81 violations since June 29 additional 210 verbal warnings. They have a high compliance rate. But I think he has some emphasis to add to what they'll be looking at in the coming weeks with the concerns have been expressed about the spread and how we need to take control of our destiny. Mike more could you come?
MMike Moore
14:35Thank you, Governor. Since July, our team has worked hard and we're going to continue to work hard to do inspections at the restaurants and the bars throughout the state of Arkansas and you know our goal and from the from the beginning and it's going to continue to be our goal is to provide education and provide a little bit of action. accountability that will help folks be safe when they're visiting restaurants and bars and clubs. As the governor mentioned, we've, we've done over 3700 inspections 93% of those inspections have proved that the bars and restaurants are trying. It's a good number 93% compliance. However, we need to understand that even a 7% of non compliance can cause some huge problems when it comes to this COVID-19 disease that our whole state is battling. So even one or two locations that are non compliant, can cause some real problems. So and also just on the violations, I want to know that most of our most of our violations that we have encountered, have resulted in only verbal warnings. So we are really trying to work with the restaurants are trying to work with the bars, our goal is for them to stay open, to keep providing services to the good people of Arkansas to keep providing paychecks to their employees. But also we want to make sure that our Kansans are safe, when they want to go out and they want to want to eat. So we're going to continue to provide education and accountability. But one note about that. We've been doing this for four months, we've been given lots of education, we've been making sure everyone understands the guidelines. And the the rules as it as they have to do with the COVID-19 for months is a long time to be given warnings. And so I think what you're going to see in the coming day is is when we find people that are non compliant, there's going to be more accountability. And we're going to up that just a little bit to see if we can get some better results. And we just want to encourage folks, when you go out to eat, when you go out to the clubs, please wear your mask, please practice, social distancing. If you're not afraid of the virus, we understand that. But the folks that you may infect with this virus is another issue. So if you don't want to do it for yourself, please do it for those around you. And I think you're gonna see a good outcome from that the more that we are compliant with these things. And also just I just don't want the folks of Arkansas to forget to keep praying for our state to keep praying for our country, that people would follow the guidelines follow the rules. And hopefully we'll have more people at Christmas to celebrate with as the numbers that the governor just gave. Thank you.
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