COVID-19 is hitting small Arkansas communities hard as less populous counties report higher per-capita case rates than populous areas.
Pulaski county and Washington county consistently lead the state in total cases, but as of Oct. 28, the 10 counties with the most cases per capita each have a total population of less than 40,000, according to ArkansasCovid.com analysis of Arkansas Department of Health data.
Jackson county leads the rest with 69.1 active cases per 10,000 residents, compared to the statewide average of 16.4 cases per 10,000 Arkansans.
Case totals have fallen significantly since the surge at the end of summer 2021, but healthcare workers in Arkansas are still facing difficulties from staffing shortages.
One nurse in the northeast region of the state, Elizabeth Lemke, said conditions were so bad she had to leave the medical field indefinitely.
In spring 2020, nursing didn’t require too much additional work to deal with the struggles of COVID-19, Lemke said in a phone interview. “But then so many people quit. But now you’re doing the job with a little extra with three people’s jobs…You can’t safely take care of anyone like that,” Lemke said.
After she quit, Lemke received calls from several medical facilities around the state looking to hire more nursing staff. “People were calling me from places I never applied to just cause I had a license,” Lemke said. “They’re going on the national registry and searching people that will come to work.”
The highly infectious delta variant is still spreading around the state despite a downward trend in cases, and the most cases-per-capita are being reported in Arkansas’ rural areas.
The ‘everybody knows each other’ charm of small towns drives the spread of the virus, according to Joshua Johnson, a recovering COVID-19 patient and resident of Mississippi county.
“If someone goes to work with COVID, they might spread it to five or six people, easily,” Johnson said in a phone interview. “And then they all go home and spread it to whoever they live with. And when everybody knows everybody, that spread is going to repeat itself across the neighborhood.”
Johnson said his case was traced back to a coworker who wasn’t showing symptoms when they were in contact, but tested positive for the virus days later.
“I see a lot of the same people every day, like just from around town and work, so if any one of us is contagious, it has a chance to spread across the whole community,” Johnson said.
The total death toll of COVID-19 in Arkansas recently exceeded 8,000 people, according to ADH data. The CDC continues to recommend booster shots as an effective means of protection against the virus. Specific guidelines for individuals seeking a booster shot are available at the department of health’s website.