Garland County’s Covid-19 upward trend leveled off according to the past week’s statistics, but County Health Officer Dr. Gene Shelby said the data that will come out next week should provide a clearer picture.

“I don’t think we can put much stock in these numbers,” Shelby wrote in his weekly update to the Hot Springs/Garland County Covid-19 Task Force on Tuesday, July 5. “The Health Department announced late last week that they were again having some issues loading new information into their Covid-19 database. Also, with the long Fourth of July weekend and essentially all outpatient health facilities closed, the reported numbers are definitely undercounts.”

For the week ending on July 4, there were 137 new cases reported, compared to the previous weeks’ 150 and 139. The number of active cases was at 264, an increase of 14 from the same time last week and up 62 from the previous week.

Representatives from CHI St. Vincent and National Park Medical Center reported having a total of 15 Covid-19 patients Tuesday afternoon, down one from last week. There were two in intensive care, one requiring ventilation.   

There were two additional Covid-related deaths reported, bringing the cumulative total to 515.

“Even with it being a short work week, this week’s numbers should give us some idea if are going to have a major surge like we had following the Fourth of July last year,” said Shelby.

The Hot Springs/Garland County Covid-19 Task Force is only meeting as needed during the summer months, but Shelby provides his weekly Covid-19 update electronically to the group.