Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that he signed an executive order today (Aug.14) extending the state’s current public health emergency for another 60 days due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“While we are making progress, we do remain in a state of emergency public health-wise,” he said.
There are 626 new COVID-19 cases with 437 in the community and 189 in correctional facilities, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 52,392. The number of hospitalizations has declined again for the third day from 473 to 466. However, the number of deaths has increased by five to 587.
The top five counties with the most number of new cases are Chicot County with 141, Pulaski County with 53, Hot Spring County with 30, White County with 28 and Saline County with 23.
Hutchinson also briefly provided a regional update on the seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases.
“All the trend lines are better and improved,” he said. “But we still have work to do on some of those by counties. You can see some of the increases in cases.”
Secretary of Health Dr. Jose Romero reported 6,359 active cases with 5,519 in the community, 778 in correctional facilities and 62 in nursing homes.
Yesterday, 5,919 COVID-19 tests were completed. Since the beginning of August, there have been 73,150 tests completed across the state.
Romero encouraged Arkansans to get tested for COVID-19 because “it’s the only way we are going to be able to see what our actual numbers are.” Furthermore, he pushed for the continued use of masks so that “the mask mandate will bear fruit” in terms of reducing the number of new cases.
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