'All of a Sudden It Blows Up': Arkansas' COVID Problem Is Just Getting Started

[LiberalArkie]

For months, New Yorkers saw their hospitals flood with COVID-19 patients and bodies pile up in refrigerated overflow morgue trucks. Meanwhile, other parts of the country never even implemented a statewide lockdown.

For those hoping a slew of Southern and rural states might have avoided the worst of the pandemic entirely, Friday’s case counts provided a grim answer.

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“It is important for our community to understand that we are not seeing more hospitalizations simply because more testing is being done,” added Wright. “We are seeing more hospitalizations because more people in our area are being infected with the virus.”

In the past week, Wright said, Washington Regional had seen a 170 percent increase in the number of tests performed at screening clinics, and a 350 percent increase in the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Of those, it also saw more critically ill virus patients, with more than 30 percent of those who’d been hospitalized requiring ventilator support.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/arkansas-covid-problem-is-just-getting-started-all-of-a-sudden-it-blows-up?ref=home