Arkansas on Sunday reported 147 new covid-19 cases and one additional death, bringing the state's cumulative total to 5,922 cases and 116 fatalities, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
The number of new cases reported on Sunday was slightly lower than the previous day's 163, but it was in line with an increased number of infections last week -- what Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Saturday described as a "second peak" after an initial crest in late April.
Active cases, the portion of the state's cumulative cases that excludes people who have recovered or died, stood at 1,658 on Sunday, 94 more than the day before.
The county with the most active cases is St. Francis County -- where hundreds of inmates at a federal prison have tested positive -- followed by Jefferson, Benton and Washington counties. Pulaski County had 138 active cases as of Sunday, while the other counties with the most active cases had between 141 and 326, the Department of Health reported.
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According to the Department of Health, Calhoun County is the only county in the state that hasn't reported at least one coronavirus case.
On Thursday, Arkansas set a single-day record for new coronavirus infections, with 455 cases reported, 226 of them outside correctional institutions.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, anchor Chris Wallace asked Hutchinson whether Arkansas has the virus under control given the number of new cases last week.
Hutchinson suggested that officials were comfortable going through the first phase of reopening. Even with expanded testing, he said, the test positivity rate in the state has remained below 5%. And the governor maintained that the new cases are not the result of the state lifting social-distancing restrictions.
"You manage the risk by increasing the testing," Hutchinson said. "You look at it as to whether the fact that we've lifted restrictions is one of the reasons for the increased number of cases, and our answer is we don't see a connection there."
Hutchinson said many of the new cases are coming from the food-supply industry, an essential industry that cannot close anyway.
Meat processing facilities in Arkansas, including plants operated by Butterball, Pilgrim's Pride, Boar's Head and Tyson, have reported outbreaks in recent weeks. Additionally, last week the governor attributed a cluster of new cases in Yell County to the poultry industry there. Nebo Poultry, which vaccinates the birds, recently reported infections among workers in Yell and Pope counties, according to the Department of Health.
Wallace also brought up how new cases reportedly came from a high school swimming party that took place in northeast Arkansas, an anecdote Hutchinson had shared during his covid-19 news conference the day before.
When asked whether he is thinking about imposing new restrictions in response to the new peak, Hutchinson called the overall spike "a concern," but he said that responding to it was "a matter of self-discipline," as well as education.
"I don't think we're going to say, 'You can't invite anybody over to a pool in the backyard of your home,'" Hutchinson stated. "I think you have to exercise discipline and make sure you have the right constraints in place." However, he didn't describe what those constraints might look like.
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The governor again attributed the spike to increased testing. He said the state needs to look ahead and "think about next fall."
"Where are we going to be?" Hutchinson said. "We're not going to be cloistered in our home; that's contrary to the American spirit. We've got to manage the risk next fall by the infrastructure that we're building now."
On the economic damage from the virus, Hutchinson acknowledged that "you can't minimize the harm and the hurt for those individual employees or small businesses," but he said the economy in Arkansas will rebound more quickly "because it was not all shut down, and people are going back to work."
He said the state has avoided hitting the projected decrease in revenue from the state sales tax, referring to a 5% drop in revenue versus a predicted 10%.
"We're beating those numbers, optimistic about coming back," Hutchinson said. "It's just going to take some time."
Metro on 05/25/2020