LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – COVID-19 numbers are increasing in Arkansas this summer. According to the Department of Health, we are seeing more than one thousand cases reported in the last seven days, and pharmacies around Little Rock said COVID tests have been flying off the shelves again.
“Very much in the last month we have seen a drastic increase in the number of people testing positive for COVID,” owner and pharmacist of Kavanaugh Pharmacy, Anne Pace said.
During the summer we see temperatures on the rise, and the cost of plane tickets as people might travel to enjoy a mid-summer vacation.
Although, with school right around the corner, covid cases are on the rise.
“A lot of that has to do with vacations, people are traveling abroad and airplanes and just being in much more close quarters,” Pace said.
Data from the Center for Disease Control shows people in the Northeast and South are seeing the most positive COVID cases.
According to the Arkansas Department of Health, there have been over 1,000 cases reported in the last 7 days.
Sunday in Arkansas, there were 113 reported cases.
“It’s not really a normal summer August that we would be seeing an increase in any sort of virus, so it is interesting to see,” Pace stated.
Anne Pace said at the beginning of the summer, they didn’t have a lot of calls.
“We get a couple calls every day, before probably this spring we haven’t, maybe a couple calls a week at the most, but it has certainly increased,” Pace said.
That isn’t just the case at Kavanaugh Pharmacy, pharmacist Brittany Sanders, at The Pharmacy at Wellington, said they have also been seeing at home COVID tests flying off the shelves.
“At the beginning of the summer there were very few phone calls, very few people looking for information about COVID and really just in the last 10-14 days, we have seen a big increase in those phone calls,” Brittany Sanders said.
If you have any questions or concerns about new vaccinations, symptoms, or anything else, call your local primary healthcare provider or local pharmacist.
