On Tuesday, public health researchers said coronavirus The cases and hospitalizations in Arkansas were a “raging forest fire,” and the state’s top health official warned that he expected a large-scale outbreak in schools.
A model from the Fay W. Boozman School of Public Health at the University of Arkansas School of Medical Sciences predicts that there will be an average of 1,039 new cases per day next week. The model also predicts that there will be an average of 169 new cases per day for children under 17 years of age.
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According to data compiled by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Arkansas has the highest number of new cases per capita in the country. The state is also one of the states with the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with only 35% of the population fully vaccinated.
“The COVID is no longer smoldering. It has broken out into a raging forest fire, and its scale and intensity will increase,” according to UAMS forecasts. “We cannot stand still. We must act to minimize the consequences of this new surge.”
The Ministry of Health said that since the pandemic began, the total number of cases in the state on Tuesday increased by 1,875 to 367,007.
The state’s health minister, Dr. Jose Romero, said he is concerned that there may be a “surge in surge” when school starts this fall. The law enacted this year prohibits schools from compulsory wearing masks or requiring students and teachers to be vaccinated.
“I expect a major epidemic in the school system this year,” Romero said in a virtual discussion about vaccine hesitation held by U.S. News and World Report. “I have been told that what is going to happen is the number of daycares closed due to the outbreak, as well as the occurrence of camp exposures and closures.”
Romero said that the key to fighting these outbreaks is for parents to emphasize the importance of wearing masks.
Dr. Bechara Choucair, the White House vaccination coordinator, visited Arkansas on Tuesday to meet with Romero, hospital leaders and other health officials. Choucair said the medical community will play a key role in combating misinformation that has caused vaccine hesitation in places like Arkansas.
“In order to be able to use facts to refute all these misinformation and answer people’s most common questions, giving people the opportunity to talk to doctors to ensure that they have reliable scientific information is vital to help us deal with the level of Wrong message,” he said.
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Earlier this month, Governor Asa Hutchinson started hosting city halls across the state to address people who have so far refused vaccinations. He plans to hold more forums next week.
The number of hospitalizations for the virus on Tuesday in the state increased by 28 to 815, of which 313 were in the intensive care unit and 131 were on ventilators. UAMS principal Dr. Cam Patterson said that the increased costs have strained hospital resources.
“At this point, our staffing is really tight,” Patterson said. “This is not a question of finding a bed, but a question of finding someone to take care of the patient, whether they are COVID-19 positive or not.”
© 2021 Canadian Press
