July 27, 2020 2:17 p.m. — Governor Announces $10 Million for Wifi Access Points for Schools In today's COVID-19 daily update, Gov. Asa Hutchinson reported the state has 39,447 positive cases, an increase of 824 from yesterday. Of those, 10 are in correctional facilities. Hospitalizations increased by 9 for a total of 489. Arkansas has 408 deaths related to the coronavirus, an increase of 7. Nearly 6,000 tests were completed in the last 24 hours bringing the total for the month to 164,001 tests.
Dr. Jose Romero with the Arkansas Department of Health reported the state has 6,674 active cases. Of those, 81 are in nursing homes, 294 are in correctional facilities and 6,299 are in the community. There are 110 patients on ventilators, an increase of 7. The top six counties with the most new cases are Pulaski County with 120, Washington County with 62, Craighead County with 46, Benton County with 45, Sebastian County with 30 and Jefferson County with 29.
Hutchinson announced $10 million from the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund will be used to provide Wifi access points for students across Arkansas. The funding will provide approximately 20,000 devices with up to 24 months of high speed unlimited data. School districts can choose state-contracted vendors AT&T, T-Mobile and potentially a third vendor. If districts want to extend the program, vendors have agreed to extend the same pricing structure for districts using local funds.
Education Secretary Johnny Key said a survey has been issued to school districts to assess their readiness to reopen. Sec. Key said results of the survey will be posted on the Arkansas Department of Education's website. He also announced about $1 million from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (from the CARES Act) will be used to purchase a stockpile of personal protective equipment to help bridge the gap for schools that may run short of PPE or have a supply chain issue. He also applauded the governor's announcement on expanding Wifi access and said a memo will be issued tomorrow with more information on how districts can access these devices.
Gov. Hutchinson announced ADH has ordered 200 machines that come with testing kits and supplies in an effort to expand the state's testing capacity. He said the machines should start arriving next week and officials will need to figure out how to allocate the machines. The governor also announced the Arkansas Legislative Council will meet tomorrow to consider funding for resources to help curb the spread of COVID-19 among Latino and Marshallese communities. The council voted not to consider the proposal at its meeting Friday.
You can watch the entire daily briefing here.
