ACHI Reports 200 Plus Cases of COVID-19 in Arkansas Schools

 August 27, 2020 3:02 P.M.—More than 200 active, confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Arkansas' public school disctricts, Governor Asa Hutchinson announced today.
Speaking during his daily briefing from Little Rock, the governor said the 222 reported cases included six students and/or staff in the Springdale School District. He announced the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) will provide COVID-19 data on students and faculy in schools across the state. Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key said the data provided shows information on districts with five or more positive cases and will include information on all public schools, universities and some private schools that elect to report data. 
"Districts will have the most real time data," Key said.  "The numbers that districts are seeing will be somethign that is very relevent to the conversations that we have with them as we work to assist them with any modifications to on-site operations."
Key said the updated numbers on school cases will be published on the Arkansas Department of Health website each Monday and Thursday. He also reported that 13 districts showed 50 or more cases of COVID-19, down from 19 last week. 
Arkansas added 722 new cases of COVID-19 today, from 6,682 recorded tests, bringing the total number of positive virus results to 58,745. Of those cases, 5,341 are considered active according to Health Secretary Jose Romero. 
Hospitalizations fell by two to 433 with 99 people on a ventilator, according to data from the department of health. The state recorded seven additional deaths today for a total of 739. 
Watch the full briefing here.