Worth noting from today's press conference, held in Conway:

22 Covid patients are hospitalized in Faulkner County
7 on a ventilator.

The county's Covid patients skew younger:
20% of its cases have been aged 18-24.
This compares to 13% in that age group for the state as a whole
Update on the Conway Human Development Center:

The center houses 451 residents with intellectual disabilities and employs around 1,000 staff.

There are 87 active cases among residents and 18 active cases among employees. None have required a ventilator, no deaths.
Dr. Smith on testing in schools:
It would be "logistically very challenging" and he doesn't know how often they would need to test the children.

The state will look at available tools (pooling tests), but that "logistically it would be perhaps more trouble than it's worth."
The fact that the state is staying away from solutions that are logistically challenging is telling. Covid is logistically challenging. The CDC has provided ADH with recommendations on serial testing.
We won't know what "it's worth" to test in schools until we don't do it.
The governor reverted to the "both sides" argument when asked about a statewide mask mandate. Yes, there's data on both sides. But the healthcare community only supports data on one of those sides.
ADH, the CDC, UAMS, WHO - they all support data on just one of those sides. Does it really matter if Bob the garage door repairman is afraid of re-breathing some of his own air when every healthcare professional in the world says doing so will keep Nana's everywhere from dying?
On hazard pay for teachers returning to school:
He passed the buck to school districts much like he is doing in passing the buck on masks to cities. And like many cities are passing on to private businesses.

No one wants to lead. But, if we've ever needed leaders, it's now.
You can follow @ArkansasCovid.
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