Since mid-May, the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have generally been increasing.
Today (June 18), the state of Arkansas has 226 hospitalizations. As the number of hospitalizations increases, the state is monitoring the ability and capacity of each hospital to treat patients.
“This is a concern. We are watching this very carefully,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said at his daily press conference. “We have more than enough statewide hospital capacity, but our hospitals are treating a variety of illnesses and medical procedures that have been pent up, put on hold, because of the COVID-19 emphasis that we’ve had. So there’s a lot of work that the hospitals are doing and we are watching that capacity. We have sufficient state-wide, by region we want to watch it very carefully.”
On Wednesday, June 17, UAMS Chancellor Dr. Cam Patterson said that he was concerned about the ability of the state’s hospital systems to handle a peak COVID-19 situation. He unveiled a UAMS model showing that the peak of the pandemic in Arkansas would likely hit around September 30, which would result in thousands more patients in Arkansas hospitals.
Hutchinson remained confident in the state’s current strategy to minimize the transmission of COVID-19.
“The strategy works whenever you find these cases whether it’s a poultry facility or another work environment, you immediately isolate it, you do your contact tracing and take the precautionary measures necessary and whenever you do that enough times then you’re going to be reducing that and making it a very safe environment.”
He also noted that the state received a large shipment of new N95 masks with procurement efforts of personal protective equipment continuing.
“We do have in each of the hospitals a surge plan. We have a statewide surge plan, so if there’s any hospital that gets close to their limit on whether its ventilators or ICU units then we have a plan to address that,” said Hutchinson. “So, that’s what great about this state and the fact that we’ve had a couple of months to work on this. We are actually now operating as a team in terms of hospitalizations. We have that well coordinated and we will be there to meet those needs.”
READ MORE: State’s Cumulative COVID-19 Total Nears 14K
