Here are some Key Notes, Statistics, and Video for Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s news update on the COVID-19 pandemic, along with updates and guidance from Dr. Nate Smith, Secretary of Health.
The press conference took place in St. Francis County today, after an outbreak of COVID-19 in the community last week, possibly spread from the Forrest City Federal Correctional Institution. A testing there over the weekend performed 500 tests on participants. Some tests are still pending, but of the 290 results that have come back, 24 individuals tested positive. See more info in the statistics list below.
On Saturday, Governor Hutchinson addressed a security issue involving 30,000 self-employed applicants for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA). When asked by reporter Monday about the possible breach, the Governor said his information is that the data was “exploited,” meaning that it was seen by an unauthorized individual, but they don’t know if the data was used. The FBI is helping the state in the investigation. They are still working on getting the website back online so that self-employed individuals may apply.
The governor announced that restaurant bars may open May 19th and stand-alone bars may open May 26th. The Department of Health will issue guidelines shortly, and Phase 1 distancing and masks will apply.
The governor will visit Washington DC on Wednesday to share with the President and vice President about Arkansas health and economy, as well as the over 60 food processing plants in the state.
Dr. Smith listed the current statistics for COVID-19 patients below:
- 4813 total cases, up 54
- 1 new case in corrections
- 53 new cases in the community
- 1068 active cases
- 378 in corrections
- 99 in nursing homes
- 591 in the community
- 3645 recovered, up 55
- 100 deaths, up 2
- 77 hospitalizations, up 12
- 12 on a ventilator, no change from Saturday
- 550 tested in the community in Forest City on Saturday
- 290 results
- 24 positive results
- 2329 tested statewide yesterday
- 2.8% positive results
- Tests per 10,000 in population
- 290 statewide
- 762 St. Francis County
- 388 Southeast region of state
Statistics for Saline County as of the end of the day yesterday were:
Positives 80
Negatives 2,290
Recoveries 70
Deaths 1
The link for case numbers the entire state is: https://adem.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f533ac8a8b6040e5896b05b47b17a647