Are Carroll County’s rates of Covid-19 high or low? On one Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, the Covid transmission level for Carroll County is listed as low. But another CDC website shows the county’s Covid community level spread is high.
Local resident Mary Wise said she is concerned that the CDC puts out at least two maps tracking Covid-19 activity, one for the general public and one for healthcare providers so they can implement the correct protocols for the week.
“After several weeks of no masks being required to be worn by staff or visitors to the local health units, they were recently instructed to wear masks again,” Wise, who works for a healthcare provider, said. “I never stopped wearing a mask. I have not delved into why there are two mapping systems or what the differences are. I just know they have at least two different mapping systems.”
She also checks the positivity rates through the Mayo Clinic’s Covid-19 tracking website, mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/map/arkansas to see where Arkansas and surrounding states are.
“We went from a low of 2.2 percent positive tests in late March to the most recent rate of 7.1 percent for May 25,” Wise said. “I feel the CDC and the government at all levels are putting lives at risk by having different criteria for risk for the public versus facilities that provide healthcare. There are too many reports out verifying the decreased protection the Covid-19 vaccines and boosters provide to say that the vaccinated are safe to mingle sans masks. I suspect that the government wants to maintain the appearance that we have returned to ‘normal’.”
Dr. John House, Health First Clinic in Eureka Springs, said he hasn’t seen any major differences between the CDC link for healthcare providers compared to those for the general public. But he has seen an increased demand for Covid testing over the last few weeks both at his clinic and the hospital.
“Most are testing negative,” House said. “Now whether that’s due to false negatives from some variant not detected by the tests or just some other infection, it’s hard to know. As you’re aware, in most cases, symptoms are hard to distinguish from flu, common cold, and even allergies. So, we have to rely on the tests. They are usually pretty reliable, but we can’t ignore the possibility of false negatives.”
As of May 31, Carroll County had 26 active cases of Covid-19, according to the Arkansas Department of Health. The county had only four active cases on March 28, after a high of 580 active cases on January 25. Arkansas has recently ranked close to last in the country in new Covid cases, according to figures from CDC, ADH and Johns Hopkins.
Across the county many people have been using home test kits, and results are not reported to health authorities. NPR reported on May 27 in a story that the real Covid surge is much bigger than it looks. “Cases of Covid-19 are — yet again — on the rise,” the story said. “The U.S. is seeing an average of more than 100,000 reported new cases across the country every day. That’s nearly double the rate a month ago and four times higher than this time last year.
“And the real number of cases is likely much higher than that, according to health officials. Because many people now rely on at-home tests, ‘We’re clearly undercounting infection’,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters at the most recent COVID press briefing. Hospitalizations are trending upwards too, though only gradually still in most places.
“Yet in most places, health officials haven’t called for any new COVID restrictions. So how big is the surge, really? And is there anything you should be doing about it?”
NPR quotes one expert who said because there is widespread availability of at-home rapid tests that aren’t reported to health departments, the true number of cases may be in the ballpark of eight times higher than case counts. In other words, instead of 100,000 new cases a day, the true number may be 800,000 cases per day. But the expert advised “take that estimate with a giant grain of salt.”
As of May 31, ADH estimated that Carroll County had only 28 active cases of Covid-19. That compares to a low of 4 cases March 28 and a high of 580 cases during the omicron surge January 25.
According to the New York Times Covid data checker May 31, new cases of Covid in Carroll County are up 47 percent in the past two weeks. Cases in Arkansas are up 322 percent in the past two weeks.