Arkansas COVID-19 cases up 1,089 cases over weekend to 9,740

(06/08/20)  Arkansas COVID-19 cases up 1,089 cases over weekend to 9,740  The following stats were shared Monday at Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s daily COVID-19 news conference in Little Rock and posted on the Arkansas Department of Health’s website:

• 9,740 total confirmed cases, up 1,089 from 8,651 on Friday.
• 2,955 active cases.
• 6,630 recoveries.
• 155 deaths, up three from Friday.
• 171 cases requiring hospitalization, up 24 from Friday.
• 46 cases on a ventilator.
• 140 cases in Garland County, up two from Friday.
• 133 recoveries in Garland County, up one from Friday.
• 1 death in Garland County, no change from Friday.

The increase of 1,089 cases since Friday comes from 450 new cases on Saturday, 335 on Sunday and 314 in the past 24 hours. Of the recent 314 cases, 13 were from correctional facilities. There were a total of 4,131 test results processed since yesterday. Hutchinson said he will no longer share the preliminary positivity rate at the daily news conference as the percentage usually increases as data for each day is finalized.

Dr. Nate Smith explained that the jump of 26 hospitalizations is concerning, but said the state is still nowhere near our hospital capacity. A majority of the new hospitalizations is from the Northwest region of the state.

Counties with the highest number new cases since yesterday include Washington (86), Benton (41), Pulaski (13), Saline (11), Sebastian (11) and Sevier (11).

Through contact tracing, there still does not appear to be a correlation between the lifting of restrictions and any increase in cases.

Hutchinson explained that upon further consideration of moving from a statewide to a regional approach of reopening, they have decided not to make any changes at this time. He said they will continue to evaluate their options, but for now he’s sticking with six things that he knows: regions are all at different stages in the epidemic; future spread is not predictable; data shows that the cases are not related to the lifting of the restrictions; increased testing helps us to shine the flashlight on the new cases we face; self-discipline and social discipline is a constant that we need to continue to exercise in Arkansas, regardless of whether the cases go up or the cases go down; and the economy must keep moving and generating and creating jobs and providing people the opportunity to make a living and support their business.

Steuart Walton, chair of the Economic Recovery Task Force, gave a few updates following the task force’s meeting this morning. “Broadly speaking, small businesses do continue to suffer an outsized portion of this impact, but there are certainly some numbers out there that back up what I think a lot of us feel, which is that Arkansas, on balance, is handling this situation pretty well and that we are doing better than some of our neighboring states with respect to where our economy is at versus where it was in January, February,” he said. They have launched a Spanish version of Arkansasready.com, as well as a Spanish version of the group’s annual report, which he said could be a good resource for all Arkansans. The “Good for You, Good for Arkansas” campaign is trying to get people to realize the importance of social distancing and wearing masks. He said that some research is showing that mask wearing is almost as effective as a vaccine.