Arkansas Surpasses 80,000 COVID-19 Cases

In his weekly COVID-19 response briefing yesterday, Governor Asa Hutchinson said he's encouraged by the number of COVID-19 tests that have been taken in Arkansas but added the number of actual cases reported each day remains too high. The number of cumulative cases since the start of the pandemic has now surpassed 80,000 and new case numbers have been over 800 five of the last seven days, although the governor said a drop in hospitalizations is a good sign. Hutchinson also shared charts depicting shifts over the past week in where the virus is growing in number. Between Sept. 20 and 26, the fastest growing population segment diagnosed with COVID-19 was people 65 and older with a more than eight percent increase. Northwest Arkansas still has the most cases of the virus, but the largest percentage increase in cases during the last seven days was in the northeast part of the state. The confirmed number of deaths from the coronavirus surpassed 1,200 with more than a hundred probable deaths. Hutchinson also discussed case numbers at schools from the past two weeks. The cases in K-12 fell from 748 to 717 and from 701 to 490 on college campuses, but the governor said those figures are still too high. To watch the full briefing, click here.