Carroll County remains quiet on the coronavirus front, at least when it comes to confirmed cases. As of April 14, only two positive cases of the covid-19 had been reported in Carroll County, according to the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH).
One downtown shop manager, Danny Turner, was notified recently by health authorities that he had been exposed to the coronavirus by a customer. Health authorities wouldn’t tell him who the customer was.
“I was exposed, they said, on the 26th,” Turner said. “I’ve been in quarantine since April 2. I was not aware of any customers who were ill. We have blue lines on the ground for social distancing and our personal protection equipment.”
Turner said he wasn’t that much impacted by losing his job because the store was about to close anyhow. “No tourists, no money,” he said.
Turner said he was told by ADH that the customer had visited other stores downtown, but Turner wasn’t told which ones.
Turner didn’t become ill, but thinks it is possible he and others got covid-19 back in February before it was supposedly in Arkansas.
“Back in February, we were sick bad for a week, the whole house,” Turner, who lives in Berryville, said. “My friend, after she woke up the morning after Valentine’s Day, ended up in Springfield in intensive care the same week I was sick and everyone else in our house was sick. I was only sick for 48 hours, but it was bad. I couldn’t breathe. Every bone hurt. This was back in February when no one was thinking of it.”
Turner said he still has a cough but isn’t sure if that is related to the illness in February.
He said he suspects that a lot more locals have had covid-19 than is reflected by low numbers in ADH reports because of lack of testing earlier. Even now, primarily only people who are seriously ill and having trouble breathing are getting tested. Turner said that could mean that the death rate is a lot lower than it currently looks because mild cases aren’t being counted.
“Yes, people are dying. It is bad, but it is not shut-down-the-whole-planet bad,” Turner said. “There are also problems with the tests. They are still trying to find a good test that works. If they open too soon, it’s going to blow back up. If they open next month, and there are still people who are infected, the number of cases could grow again. But we can’t stay shut down and hide, either. There has to be a balance somewhere. People are not going to stay all summer in their house.”
Turner said he isn’t sure Eureka Springs will even reopen this season.
“I hate to say that, but I think it has scared people off this year,” Turner said. “And I just hope Eureka can survive it. Maybe we’ll have a good fall.”
Personally, he has found it trying to be quarantined. He sees projects around the house but has no money to tackle them.
“We’ve been buying food with the money that we have until we can get back to work,” he said.