HJAR Sep/Oct 2020

DIALOGUE 10 SEP / OCT 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS   risk of spreading the virus among young people, but many mental health experts warn of the negative effects of keeping them out of schools. You have a tough balancing act. What goes through your mind as you ponder this generation, and the effects COVID-19 will have on them? Gov. Hutchinson We all understand the importance of in the classroom instruction from a social standpoint, but also from the standpoint of learning, and so that’s what we want to see happen, but we understand that we have to have a safe environment in the schools. The challenge we face is that if there’s a 15 year old that is positive for COVID-19, where did he or she get it, and where did he or she spread it?What you’ve got to realize is that even if you don’t have school, and they’re just learning virtually, where else are those young people going? They’re still going to be out in the commu- nity; they’re not going to just be isolated at home. They’re going to be active, and so that potential for spread among young people is true whether you have school or not. So, the lesson here is that people have to protect themselves and protect others by social distancing and wearing a mask. Those are the things you can, by and large, con- trol. We hope to control that in the school environment, but certainly also out in the relationship, really, between the Depart- ment of Health and its leadership in part- nership with hospitals in the medical com- munity. Of course, you also just learn about the extraordinary courage and commitment of the healthcare personnel, from nurses, respiratory therapists, doctors, and there’s just no quit in them. They continue to be on the frontline, absorb the stress, and save lives, and that’s something that has made them new heroes in our state, and rightly so. Editor Are you comfortable with the current testing—quantity, quality, and turn-around time? Gov. Hutchinson I am not. That has been a challenge from day one in this pandemic. Early on, in March and April, we were not able to get the testing supplies that we needed, and then when our caseload went down in April and May, all of a sudden the testing supplies became more available, and our testing increased. Then when there was a second round of the virus, and it contin- ued to accelerate in Texas and California, the testing shortage hit us again in June and July. Right now the turn-around time involved, and I’m primarily speaking of the commercial labs, because of the demand on them, and number of cases that are that are coming from all across the country, in terms of our Department of Health, we really put a focus on that. They’ve increased their capac- ity, and their turn-around time is still fairly quick, two to three days at most. That sys- tem seems to be working well, and so the plan is to invest more in our own health department capacity. Today we ordered 200 point of care machines that can be deployed across the state, and that’s a sample of where we need to go with the future—to be able to control our own destiny more in terms of testing, and we’ll continue to invest in our capacity at the Department of Health. Editor Arkansas seems to have a higher percentage of youth testing positive for COVID-19 than other states. With school now back in session, there is increased community, because you cannot stop a young person from moving. It’s just going to happen. You’ve got to deal with that real- ity and protect yourself. Editor How is the contact tracing program going in Arkansas? Do you believe contact tracing will make an impact on containing COVID-19? Gov. Hutchinson Well, the more cases you have, and the longer the delay in receiving test results, the more difficult contact trac- ing is. As our cases have increased from 100 a day, to 300 a day, to 600 a day, then that is a huge burden on our contact trac- ers to make contact with everybody, to fol- low up with those people that might have been exposed to the virus. But, that is one of the most important tools we have. So, you can’t quit on it, you’ve got to invest in it, and you’ve got to strive to make it work and effective. We’ve seen success stories from our early work in Cleburne County, when you had an outbreak there that we isolated, we tested, we traced through the contacts, and we suppressed that. In north- west Arkansas, we’ve had a peak and now we’re going down in northwest Arkansas because of the investment in contact trac- ing, so you can’t quit on that, even though we have to do better in terms of timeliness, “I think a large part of what I’ve learned is the integral role the Department of Health plays. Our electronic system to monitor hospitalizations has been so effective, and the reporting system for infectious diseases, so I’ve learned the relationship, really, between the Department of Health and its leadership in partnership with hospitals in the medical community.”