Governor Asa Hutchinson delivered Friday's coronavirus response briefing from De Queen where he announced the state had recorded another 751 new COVID-19 cases. Hospitalizations increased by another eight, bringing the total to 402. Hot Springs County recorded the most new cases with 145 and Pulaski had 100. Benton and Washington Counties recorded 54 and 51 new cases, respectively. Sebastian County had an additional 42. The governor also discussed commercial lab test wait times. He said in July the average wait time across the state was 2.5 days, but acknowledged that anecdotally he's hearing wait times are much longer. Hutchinson said he's not concerned about the supply of testing swabs and reagents at the Arkansas Department of Health or UAMS. The concern, he said, is on the national level because high population states like Texas are seeing a huge increase in cases, which puts pressure on commercial labs outside Arkansas and leads to a delay in test result times. Hutchinson again expressed he would like to see the president use the National Defense Production Act to strengthen the supply chain. To listen to the full briefing, click here.
Governor Delivers Coronavirus Response Briefing From De Queen
