Arkansas slashes to 8 intensive care beds as Covid tears state apart

Arkansas saw the largest one-day increase in hospitalizations for Covid-19, leaving just eight intensive care unit beds open statewide, authorities said on Monday.

With 1,376 people hospitalized with the virus, Gov. Asa Hutchinson pleaded with his constituents to get vaccinated.

“Today’s report shows some very surprising numbers,” Hutchinson said in a statement.

“We saw the largest increase in single-day hospitalizations and eclipsed our previous record of hospitalizations for Covid. There are currently only eight intensive care beds available in the state. Vaccinations are reducing hospitalizations . “

Jeff Tabor, program director for Arkansas’ COVIDComm system, which matches Covid-19 patients with hospitals, speculated that the critical care crisis is due to both the recent spread of virus and patients who postponed other medical procedures during the pandemic.

“I’m afraid we are at a time when everything (patient with) time sensitive disease will be affected,” Tabor told NBC News on Tuesday. “(Patients who need treatment for) Covid, trauma, stroke, heart attack, sepsis, anyone critically ill with diabetes, many more will be affected by the lack of resources.”

Just over 1.1 million people in Arkansas are fully vaccinated, or about 37.6% of the population, according to an ongoing NBC News tally on Monday.

That’s lower than neighboring states such as Texas (44.5%), Oklahoma (40.8), Missouri (42.1), and Tennessee (39.6).

Hutchinson in April passed a law banning mask requirements by government entities. The governor said last week he regretted it.

“Looking back, I hope this had not become law,” he told reporters at a press conference.

A judge on Friday temporarily barred the state from enforcing the ban on mask warrants after lawmakers left the ban in place despite a growing number of Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations.

There have been 405,727 confirmed cases in the state with a rate of increase of 58% in the past 14 days, according to the NBC News tally. The virus has killed 6,322 people in the state during the pandemic, the data shows.