There's a pressing need for blood donations, both in Arkansas and nationwide, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Tuesday during his weekly COVID-19 update.
Lori Arnold, executive director at the Arkansas office of the American Red Cross, joined Hutchinson at the update to ask Arkansans to contribute to the organization's efforts to increase its blood product inventory.
"Every two seconds, someone in America will need blood," Arnold said. "Almost everyone knows somebody who, in their lifetime, will need a blood or platelet transfusion."
Hutchinson also noted that September is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month. According to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, an estimated 100,000 Americans have sickle cell disease, and the Arkansas Department of Health reports that one in 60 babies born in Arkansas each year will have the sickle cell trait.
"During the pandemic, the donations of blood have decreased by about 10% and the need has increased, particularly in recent days with hurricanes and other things that have happened," Hutchinson said. "There is a demand there with the supply not being what we want it to be."
Alexandria Bennett, executive director of business development for Medical Center of South Arkansas, said that while patient care hasn't been disrupted, the hospital does have "lower than normal availability of some blood products."
"Although donor supply is down, our hospital has been able to source supplies when needed," Bennett said.
Arnold noted that only 38% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood, and within that group, only about 10% actually do make donations.
"Keep in mind that blood cannot be manufactured in a lab. The only way to get blood products is through the life-giving donation of blood by another person to our patients who are in need," she said.
LifeShare Blood Center will be hosting a mobile blood drive at MCSA on Tuesday, Sept. 28, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
"We strongly urge our community to come and give blood," Bennett said.
She noted that a single car accident victim could require as much as 100 units of blood during treatment.
One can also set an appointment to give blood at the LifeShare Blood Center at 1803B N. West Ave. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Visit donor.lifeshare.org/donor/schedules/center/10 to learn more.
"We encourage everybody who is in the position that they can give blood to consider a donation," Hutchinson said.
Beating expectations
Hutchinson also highlighted during Tuesday's update the recent decrease in daily new COVID-19 cases. In the seven-day period from Wednesday, Sept. 15 through Tuesday, 7,743 cases have been identified in the state, according to data from the ADH, compared to 9,695 new cases in the seven-day period preceding that.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences predicted on Aug. 23 that the state could be seeing 4,000 new cases per day by Sept. 14 if it continued on the trajectory it was on then, Hutchinson said; the prediction came after a seven-day period in which 15,579 new COVID-19 cases were logged by the state.
"Hopefully we can continue to beat those numbers," Hutchinson said Tuesday.
However, the state did not stay as far from UAMS' projection of COVID-related deaths, the governor said, noting that often "late reports" of COVID-related deaths will come to the ADH and be retroactively added to a day's death toll.
"While our cases are lower than the projection, and while the hospitalizations are down, you can see that our deaths are meeting or exceeding, actually, the projection, and this is troublesome because it shows the seriousness of the virus," Hutchinson said. "The delta variant is very serious."
He stressed the disparity in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths between vaccinated and unvaccinated Arkansans; according to ADH data, since Feb. 1, 89.41% of all new COVID-19 cases recorded have been in Arkansans who weren't fully immunized, as well as 91.11% of all COVID-related hospitalizations and 89.69% of COVID-related deaths.
"To protect us in the future and to keep us going in the right direction, we need to continue -- to continue -- to not delay in getting the vaccination, to get the vaccination as soon as you possibly can," Hutchinson said.
ADH Secretary Dr. Jose Romero said children ages 12 to 18 are largely accepting the vaccine, with 48.1% of that population at least partially immunized and an additional 36.6% of that population fully immunized. He said Arkansan children account for about 26% of the state's active virus cases.
Romero also noted that the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which developed and manufactures one of three COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States, had recently announced good results in a study of its vaccine in children ages five to 11. He said the doses given to the children in the study were one-third the dose given to adults.
"It appears to be extremely promising, eliciting very robust response immunologically in these children, and this data should be submitted soon to the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) for their review and their ruling if they decide to go forward with approval," Romero said.
Those over the age of 65 anticipating booster doses will have to wait a bit longer for those to become available, however. Hutchinson said booster shots for seniors are awaiting final committee approval, which he hopes will come within the next week.
"Hopefully there will be a clarity on that late this week or early next week. Dr. Romero is monitoring that very closely, but everybody who is in that category and eligible, they just need to be patient," Hutchinson said.
Controversial booklet
State Secretary of Education Secretary Johnny Key also took time during Tuesday's update to address a recent controversy over an educational booklet the ADE distributed to Arkansas students titled "A Kids Guide to Coronavirus."
According to reporting from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the company that produces the booklets, EverBright Media, was founded by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2011. The state spent $245,300 last year to purchase copies for every elementary school, including private schools, in Arkansas.
In August 2020, when Key announced that the books were to be distributed to students, he said they would help children "have a better understanding of why we are asking them to wear masks;" however, as Key noted Tuesday, the version of the booklets published on the department's website last school year "said something else."
According to the Democrat-Gazette, the old version of the booklets discouraged "hoarding supplies" and stated "face masks aren't recommended as a way of preventing Coronavirus for healthy people."
"We have since updated, or, are in the process of updating, the actual document on our website," Key said Tuesday.
The ADE will spend $265,448 in federal COVID relief funds to purchase updated versions of the booklet for the 2021/2022 school year, according to the Democrat-Gazette.
School and nursing home cases
Key said that as of Tuesday, this week, only one grade in one school in one school district -- Greenbriar -- has made a modification to on-site learning as a result of COVID outbreaks.
According to a report on school cases produced by the ADH on Monday, three local school districts and South Arkansas Community College had more than five active cases among students and staff that day.
As of Monday, since Aug. 1, 58 cases had been identified in the El Dorado School District, including 41 in students and 10 in staff, and 14 were active; 57 cases had been identified in the Parkers Chapel School District, including 44 in students and seven in staff, and 12 were active; 29 cases had been identified in the Junction City School District, including 23 in students and six in staff, and five were active; and 31 cases had been identified at SouthArk, with 10 active Monday.
One local nursing home also reported cases to the ADH, according to a report produced on Monday.
Timberlane Health and Rehabilitation had eight residents and two workers test positive for the virus in the 14-day period preceding Sept. 20. A resident most recently tested positive on Sept. 10, according to the report. In total, 83 Timberlane residents and 53 workers have contracted COVID-19, and 11 residents have died as a result of their infections.
Local vaccines
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.
Vaccines are available locally by appointment at at Melvin's Discount Pharmacy, 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 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.
Vaccines are free to all, and one does not need health insurance to get vaccinated.
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.