Des Arc clinic closes for day after patient sent for coronavirus test

This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes covid-19.
This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes covid-19.

A Des Arc health clinic closed for the day Monday "out of an abundance of caution" after a visit by a patient with flu-like symptoms, a spokesman said.

The ARCare facility rescheduled all its afternoon appointments after a clinician referred a patient to the Arkansas Department of Health for further testing amid the national spread of a newly identified coronavirus.

Spokesman Winston Collier declined to say if the patient's travel history or other factors suggested the need for additional tests, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a privacy law.

No one in Arkansas has yet been diagnosed with covid-19, the respiratory illness associated with the virus, though cases are present in Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma and other surrounding states.

ARCare has roughly 45 locations in Arkansas as well as several sites in Mississippi and Kentucky.

Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more details.

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