Arkansas Records More Than 700 New Cases of Coronavirus in 24-Hour Period

At today’s press briefing, Governor Asa Hutchinson announced there were 731 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24-hour monitoring period, the highest single-day increase since the pandemic began. That pushes the cumulative total past 11,500 with more than 4,700 active cases.  Washington County has 221, Benton County 91, Madison County has 32 and Sebastian County recorded 24. With five additional deaths, the state’s death toll has risen to 176. The governor also discussed testing conducted by Tyson Foods at the company’s Berry Street facility in Springdale, where cases are accumulating. Hutchinson is asking Arkansans to voluntarily social distance, wash hands often and wear masks to protect others. He's authorized 20 National Guard members specialized in contact tracing to immediately be put on active duty to assist, and is asking commercial test vendors to pitch in. Despite the growing case load the governor says he doesn’t plan to pull back on the state’s scheduled phase two reopening on Monday. You can watch the Governor's daily briefings here.