The Arkansas Center for Health Improvements has raised an alarm about the doubling of the number of Arkansas school districts in the red zone for Covid-19, with 50 or more new known Covid-19 infections per 10,000 district residents over a 14-day period. That report from Oct. 12 showed 26 school districts in the red zone compared to 13 districts a week earlier.
ACHI said the infections are among all people living within the geographical boundaries of the school districts and are not specific to school employees and students. ACHI President and CEO Dr. Joe Thompson said most districts entering the red zone this week are in rural areas, which shows that Covid-19 is affecting all parts of the state.
Berryville Public Schools and the Green Forest School District are included in the red zone.
The number of known Covid-19 infections in the U.S. stands now at 8.1 million, with more than 58,000 new virus cases Oct. 20. Johns Hopkins University reported that Oct. 18 was the fifth consecutive day when the number of known new infections in the U.S. was more than 50,000. Eighteen states set new weekly records for new infections in the week that ended Oct. 16.
The number of active cases in Arkansas reached a new high of 8,000 on Oct. 14 and has continued to grow with more than 1,000 new cases reported three days of the third week of October before dropping below 1,000 for the weekend. Hospitalizations reached a new high five days of the previous week and were reported at 572 Oct. 18.
Carroll County has seen a total of 937 known cases with 132 cases active. One death was added last week bringing the toll to 12. Arkansas has reached 99,597 total known cases with 1,714 deaths. About 75 percent of the deaths have been in people more than 65 years old.