LITTLE ROCK, Ark — While hospitalizations fell by one on Wednesday, Dec. 15, the trend over the past month has been a gradual increase.
It's something Governor Asa Hutchinson recently addressed, but he noted that the number of patients hospitalized this December is less than half of what it was in 2020.
Over the past few weeks, hospitals here in the state have felt that gradual increase of COVID-19 patients.
While health officials are worried about this, Dr. Robert Hopkins with UAMS said we have positives and negatives on our side right now.
"There are some hopeful signs, but we really have to stick to good public health behaviors. That's really the most important thing," he said.
With more COVID patients continuing to need hospital beds, Hopkins said doctors at UAMS are watching closely.
"We're up in the 20 range. Again, we were down in the close to the single digits for a while, but we're going back up," he said.
It's a similar story for Baptist Health, according to Infection Prevention Director Dr. Amanda Novack.
"We've seen that gradual increase, no one place has really been struck hard with it, but yes, it has been a steady climb for at least three weeks now," she said.
That steady climb is something the state as a whole is experiencing.
COVID hospitalizations have increased from 282 to 517 over the past month.
Dr. Hopkins worries Arkansas could be in for another rough winter.
"If people are not willing to take the precautions and put as many layers as possible in place to minimize the risk of infection, we're gonna continue to have infection," he said.
It's similar to what we saw last year during the colder months, but the volume isn't nearly the same.
Last December we had 1,050 people hospitalized with COVID on Dec. 14, 2020.
This year, on that same day in 2021, that number was at 518.
Dr. Novack attributed it to vaccinations, education and immunity.
"The acuity, the sickness of the people we're taking care of is not as drastic as it was last year," she said.
While more people may need hospital care, both doctors said capacity isn't what they're worried about.
"We could probably be able to wedge some beds and other space, but we've got to have enough nurses and respiratory therapists and physicians and others to staff those beds," Dr. Hopkins said.
"We have really an incredible ability to add more physical beds and to turn locations into functional ICUs. It's always about the staffing," Dr. Novack said.
Both doctors said most of the patients hospitalized right now are unvaccinated.
The state's dashboard shows 87.3% to be exact. That's since February and it's been pretty steady for months.