Gov. Asa Hutchinson held his weekly COVID-19 update press conference Tuesday, and dedicated much of his time to talking about the expected upcoming availability of vaccines for children between the ages of 5 and 11.
The Pfizer COVID vaccine is still awaiting final approval from the United States Centers for Disease Control. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved use of the vaccine, which has been reformulated for smaller dose-sizes for children in the 5 to 11 age group, last week.
Hutchinson said CDC approval could come as soon as Tuesday afternoon, though by press time no announcement had been made that children 5 to 11 were eligible for vaccination against COVID.
"Arkansas is well-prepared to get out the vaccines and make them available for the new age group that we anticipate being approved," Hutchinson said early Tuesday afternoon. "It has not been permitted to give the vaccines out until the CDC actually does its approval ... But we are prepared to get that out."
Hutchinson said the children's doses the state has received already have been distributed to local health units (LHUs) throughout the state so that as soon as the CDC's approval does come through, parents can begin to get their children vaccinated.
"Most of our local health units already have the vaccine that's needed for the age group 5 to 11, and that is a different vial than is used for adults. It's a different quantity of the vaccine," he said.
Information about whether the children's COVID vaccine would be available at the Union County Local Health Unit as soon as CDC approval was granted was not available at press time Tuesday.
Hutchinson said that once approval from the CDC is granted, vaccines will also begin to be released to local health care providers outside of the LHU, with a focus at first on providers who administer vaccines to children. Other clinics and pharmacies that administer vaccines will also start receiving doses soon, he said.
"We want parents to seriously consider the vaccination of (their children of) the ages 5 to 11. Let me emphasize a particular point: There is no mandate in Arkansas for the vaccination of children, or anyone, in terms of COVID-19, in terms of state government, state policy," Hutchinson said. "We want to assure everyone that this is a parental decision of their children. We encourage it."
Dr. Jose Romero, Arkansas Secretary of Health, said the vaccine for children 5 to 11 has shown to be safe, but the CDC plans to continually monitor vaccination efforts for that age group far into the future.
"The vaccine for this age group, 5 to 11, has been shown to be safe and efficacious," he said. "If we see signals that are of concern, they will be examined and closely evaluated to see if there is a need to continue the vaccine, or modify it. This vaccine will be followed well into the future."
Hutchinson noted that pediatric COVID-19 cases -- cases in children ages zero to 18 -- increased significantly between the peaks in cases seen in the winter and summer this year. According to data from the Arkansas Department of Health, there was a 50% increase in cases in children during that period, along with an 84% in hospitalizations and a 64% increase in ICU admittance. Romero noted that the ADH has also seen a rise in cases in children 5 to 11 since last week.
According to a report on COVID cases in schools produced by the ADH on Monday, there were six active cases in the El Dorado School District that day. In total, 124 cases have been identified in the ESD this school year, including 91 in students and 21 in staff and faculty.
Romero said there are about 271,000 children between the ages of 5 and 11 in Arkansas. The state will initially receive 110,000 doses of the children's vaccine, he said.
"These children should be considered for vaccination. ... They bore a big brunt of the number of cases we saw in this summer's surge due to Delta (virus variant). We need to protect them. This is a way to do so, and it is advisable," he said. "I strongly recommend this for children in this age group."
Cases in the state, in general, increased Tuesday over last week, with 641 new cases reported. Romero said that because the COVID Delta variant is more transmissible than the original virus, the state's decline in cases has plateaued somewhat. However, the number of new cases added to the state's total on Monday was the fewest Arkansas had seen since June.
"We're not seeing as rapid a decline as we had seen with the winter surge and the reason why is that COVID is much more transmissible," Romero said Tuesday. "We're watching it. We notice that slight uptick; we can't say it's a trend -- it's a single day -- but we're going to watch it very carefully."
The state also added 28 new deaths to its total number of residents killed by COVID, which Hutchinson said was on-trend with previous days.
"That catches my attention; I'm sure it catches your attention. These -- many of them were carried over from the previous 24 hours, so that's really reflecting about 36 deaths over the past two days, which is still too high, but it's been a fairly consistent pattern, regretfully."
The state reached a milestone in vaccine doses administered on Tuesday, with 1,400,779 Arkansans now considered fully immunized against the virus. Hutchinson said he hopes vaccine uptake continues as the winter approaches.
"There is some expectation that first doses will go down, but they've been maintaining steady, and so we continue to make progress in our first doses, which is a test as to whether we're going to increase (the number of) those that are partially and fully immunized," he said. "I would love, as a state, that we catch up with the national average. We want to continue to improve our statewide vaccination of adults and other age categories because we want to make sure we have a good winter."
Vaccines available locally
COVID-19 vaccines are widely available in Union County and throughout the state.
According to the ADH, vaccines are available locally at Melvin's Discount Pharmacy, SAMA, Walmart, Walgreens, both Brookshire's branches in El Dorado and the Union County Local Health Unit. To set a vaccination appointment at Melvin's, call 870-863-4155; for SAMA, call 870-862-2400; for Walmart, visit walmart.com/COVID; for Walgreens, visit walgreens.com/findcare/vaccination/covid/19/landing; for Brookshire's, visit brookshires.com/covid-19-information; and for the Local Health Unit, call 1-800-985-6030.
More information about COVID-19 vaccines is available at healthy.arkansas.gov/programs-services/topics/covid-19.
Three COVID-19 vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have been approved for use in the United States. The Pfizer vaccine has received full approval from the FDA for use in people 16 and older, and has emergency use authorization for use in people as young as 12 years old, while the latter two vaccines are approved for use in anyone over the age of 18.
COVID testing is also available in Union County at SAMA, at 600 S. Timberlane in El Dorado; Medical Center of South Arkansas, at 700 W. Grove in El Dorado; Walgreens at 701 W. Grove and 2135 N. West Ave in El Dorado; the Union County Local Health Unit, at 301 American Rd. in El Dorado; and the Strong Clinic, at 253 S. Concord in Strong.