Living in a Red Zone
With early voting starting this week, one might think the title of this column is referring to our red state. In actuality, it’s about living in an area with increasing COVID-19 cases. Today, Wednesday, Oct. 21, there are 66 active cases in Clay County according to the Arkansas Department of Health. On Monday, we had 49 active cases. Everyday we hear of more friends and neighbors who have tested positive or are in quarantine. The county has a total of 443 confirmed total cases. Yesterday the Corning Therapy and Living Center sent messages to the families of residents indicating they have one newly identified positive resident and reported they have taken all the steps directed by the ADH regarding appropriate measures for quarantining the resident to protect all others and staff. A map was released on Tuesday from the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) of the 14-day moving averages of percentage positives for each county from Oct. 5 - Oct. 19. Clay was in the mid-range with 9.8%. I hope by the time you are reading this that our numbers are declining.