Category: Student_Work

By Caroline Sellers

Arkansascovid.com

Arkansas County will hold a drive-thru mass vaccination clinic on Thursday, April 8 at the Phillips Community College campus in Helena-West Helena.

The clinic will have 200 Johnson & Johnson vaccines available, according to Lisa Roberson, the administrator at the Arkansas County Health Unit- Stuttgart.

“We will start at 9 a.m. that morning and give them until they are gone. It is first come, first serve. We are not doing appointments for the drive-thru,” Roberson said.

Arkansas County, a part of the Southeast region of the state, has fully vaccinated 3,210 people, according to the latest data from the Arkansas Department of Health that was reported on April 5.

“From what I have seen, people are still being really compliant,” Roberson said when asked about if residents in Arkansas County are still wearing masks.

Arkansas County has had 36 deaths, 2,081 total positive cases and currently has 9 active cases according to April 6 data from the ADH. The county currently has an estimated population of 18,124 according to the ADH.

Zack Smith, a pharmacist at Professional Pharmacy in Stuttgart, says that his pharmacy has vaccinated between 500 to 1,000 people as of last week.

“We are a smaller pharmacy so I think we have been in pretty good shape,” Smith said when asked if he thinks his pharmacy has received a good amount of the vaccine.
“Probably the majority of the people that want it in this area have probably gotten it or are scheduled to get it,” Smith said.

By Haley Hale
Arkansascovid.com

Woodruff County reported about 20% of its adult population as fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of March 31, the highest vaccination rate in the Arkansas Delta.

Debra Neal, administrator of the Woodruff County Health Unit, said that demand for the vaccine has been pretty high. “Lots of people want it. You got some that don’t, but we have more that do than don’t,” she said.

Neal said all pharmacies were eligible to give the vaccine, but only one wanted to do it: ARcare Pharmacy in Augusta.

Tammie Watkins, a certified pharmacy technician, said “a lot of times we get a hundred a week, but then we’ve started getting the second doses, so it varies.” Typically, they will receive 100 first and 100 second COVID-19 doses per week.

“At one time we had liek 800 people on our [waiting] list, which has went down considerably since other places are getting it to be able to give now, but we still have several hundred,” Watkins said.

In addition to ARcare, Watkins said the clinic in Augusta is now able to give vaccines. Statewide, 17.3% of the adult population was fully vaccinated as of March 31, which put Woodruff County above the state average.

By Ravi Brock
Arkansascovid.com

Little Rock will hold a COVID-19 mass vaccination event on Saturday at the Simmons Arena, the first of four events in the coming weeks.

UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, in a press release, said the events show they are “working together with the state’s cities, counties, insurers and nonprofit organizations, we try to ensure that none of Arkansas’ 3 million residents will fall through the cracks. All of us want to maximize access to vaccines in as many ways as we can.”

For State Senator Linda Chesterfield, the vaccination effort has deep significance. “I’ve had a family member who died from COVID-19, so it is very personal for me,” Chesterfield said in a statement. “It is important that every Arkansan get vaccinated, and we can do that with vaccination efforts like this one.”

The clinics are expected to vaccinate up to 2,000 people and will be held April 10, May 1, May 22, and June 12 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde said in a statement that fewer than 30% of Pulaski County’s population has received at least one dose, and about 12% are fully vaccinated. Hyde urged anyone eligible for a vaccine, currently people age 16 and older, “to receive a vaccine at the first opportunity.”

Face masks are required for the event. There are no out-of-pocket cost for the vaccine. Clinic attendees are encouraged to bring insurance cards and valid IDs.

By Robert Stewart
Arkansascovid.com

When Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced the end of the statewide mask mandate last week, some cities, such as Little Rock and Fayetteville, were quick to extend their own mask requirements at the local level. By contrast, Jonesboro opted for a hybrid approach.

Jonesboro Mayor Harold Copenhaver said the city government safety measures on masks would not change. Wearing a face covering and practicing social distancing will still be required in city offices “to care for the health of City employees and be responsible to our community,” Copenhaver said in a statement. Yet businesses in Jonesboro are free to make their own decisions about mask requirements.

As of April 4, Craighead County had the second-highest seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases in Northeast Arkansas with 6.14. That number is about six times smaller than it was Feb. 1, but it still nearly triples the statewide average of 2.14 and the regional average of 1.96. While new cases remain relatively high in Craighead County, so does the vaccination rate. It lingers about half a percent behind the statewide 17.3%, but leads 14 other counties in Northeast Arkansas, trailing only Woodruff, Clay and Cross as of April 2.