20th local COVID-19 death reported

Northeast Arkansas coronavirus cases continue to climb

By RALPH HARDIN

ralphhardin@gmail.com

The global COVID-19 pandemic rages on, including here in Crittenden County. County Judge Woody Wheeless recently offered an update on the state of the state and county in regards to the coronavirus, including some unsettling regional statistics.

“The northeast region of the state, which includes Crittenden County, is showing a larger number in new positive cases compared to the other regions,” said Wheeless. “We have to do a better job of protecting others as well as ourselves. Our active cases have gone up almost 40 during the past several days.

Wheeless also referenced Governor Asa Hutchinson’s report to the public to provide state coronavirus numbers (through Aug. 3): Cumulative Total of Positive Cases in Arkansas: 44,597 Active Cases: 6,882 Recovered: 37,240 Hospitalized: 513 On a Ventilator: 108 Deaths: 475 “The governor has set a goal for 190,000 tests to be performed and 10,000 antigen tests (this month),” said Wheeless. “The main advantage of an antigen test is it provides results in minutes. However, antigen tests may not detect all active infections, as the do not work the same way as a PCR test. Antigen tests are very specific for the virus, but are not as sensitive as molecular PCR tests. This means that positive results from antigen tests are highly accurate, but there is a higher chance of false negatives, so negative results do not rule out infection. With this in mind, negative results from an antigen test Amy need to be confirmed with a PCR test prior to making treatment decisions or to prevent the possible spread of the virus due to a false negative.”

Testing remains a key component of tracking and combatting the virus. “For the month of July, 194,836 tests were performed and that was just short of the 200,000 goal set for the month,” said Wheeless.

Wheeless also provided upto- date numbers for Crittenden County, which saw the number of COVID-19 fatalities rise to 20 over the past few days.

Cumulative Total of Positive Cases in Crittenden County: 1,213 Active Cases: 137 Recovered: 1,056 Deaths: 20 Negative Cases: 7,836 “I want to share some additional information that can be found on achi.net,” said Wheeless. “On that site you will find total cumulative cases and current active cases from most of the cities in our county but not all. They are continuing to update the site and hopefully the cities that are missing currently, will be added soon.”

Total Cumulative Cases by

See COVID, page A3

WHEELESS COVID

From page A1

City (as of July 27, the latest available data): Crawfordsville: 18 Earle: 41 Marion: 299 Proctor: 23 Turrell: 25 West Memphis: 647 The report also gave the total number of currently active cases in the county’s two largest municipalities, Marion (38) and West Memphis (83).

“I ask that you continue to do your part to further reduce this number,” said Wheeless.