Page 20 - ATR 5 2020 digital

“DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO AND GET BACK IN YOUR
CAB. YOUR CAB IS YOUR SAFE ZONE.”

—DR. JOSÉ ROMERO, SECRETARY OF THE ARKANSAS
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

and it support stakeholders in the com- works: Once someone tests positive
munity who are fighting COVID. It for the virus, they are contacted by a
manages the administrative and finan- nurse, who tells them to stay isolated or languages to reach the non-English
cial aspects of the response so we don’t quarantined. Another trained health- speaking populations of Arkansas,
have to take time away to do that.” care professional contacts the patient to including the Burmese, Marshallese and
Shortly after the identification of obtain information about where they’ve Spanish-speaking communities.
COVID-19 in Arkansas, a pandemic been, and who they’ve been in contact
physicians group was formed, Romero with. Then those individuals are tracked WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT
said. The group is made up of physi- down for additional testing. People who COMES NEXT
cians with expertise in different areas, test positive are given instructions for During his presentation, Romero
and they meet three times a week and how long to stay in quarantine, and also outlined the history of the virus
provide medical and health guidance when that time period is up, they are globally, nationally and in Arkansas,
related to the virus. given a letter releasing them from quar- and he described the how quickly it can
“They advise the Secretary of antine. be transmitted when no precautions are
Health, who then advises the Governor Romero also described the work of being taken. One graph he shared from
regarding guidelines or directives that the ADH lab, which he said is one of The New York Times showed how one
come from his office,” he said. “So the best public health laboratories in the person with COVID-19 generally infects
they’re essential in helping to filter country. He said the lab has expanded 2-3 people. After five cycles of infected
the information and providing the key considerably since the pandemic’s onset. individuals infecting 2-3 more people,
pieces of information to myself and the “We went from only being able to the number of infected people from
Governor.” process 200-300 specimens a day to the initial infection can reach 368.
Also in Arkansas, a COVID-19 call 3,000 now, and we’ll be expanding to And then each of those 368 people will
center was established and is staffed by 4,000-4,500,” he said. “These are due infect 2-3 more people.
employees of the Department of Health. to the CARES Act and funding from “So you can see how rapidly this
Initially, a large contingent of the the Governor. We’ve developed a very virus is spread when there are no pre-
National Guard was answering calls. robust network for getting specimens to cautions,” he said, emphasizing why
By August, more than 40,000 calls had our institutions. We have local health masks are so important.
been answered at the call center, which units in every county that will test any- “Transmission is through respira-
is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a one. We have no requirements. You can tory routes—through spread of respira-
week. There is also a constantly-staffed walk in and get a test and you should tory droplets or aerosol,” Romero said.
physician and healthcare provider hot- have your results in 24-48 hours. We “Large droplets fall out of the air at
line, and over the summer, the ADH have taken up the slack that commer- about 3-6 feet. Aerosol is smaller drop-
started a K-12 hotline for parents and cial and other labs have not been able lets and can travel many feet in the
educators to get the most recent infor- to meet because of demand elsewhere air and are potentially infectious from
mation regarding children in schools in the country. We’ve added new tech- greater distances. This is why masks are
and daycares. nologists and biologists to our lab and important--not because it protects you,
Romero said contact tracing is one continue to push forward.” but it protects those around you. That’s
of the most essential jobs of the ADH, The ADH has also worked to create called ‘source control.’ This virus can be
and he described the way the process COVID-related information in other transmitted by someone who is asymp-

20 Issue 5 2020 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT