Gov. Asa Hutchinson is expected to make another announcement about the state’s reopening plans on Wednesday, June 10.
While in Pine Bluff for his daily COVID-19 press briefing on Tuesday, Hutchinson said that he planned to address the state’s Phase II reopening plans during the Wednesday press conference. The announcement will reportedly address when and how the state will enter the second phase of reopening. However, he did not offer any further details on what the reopening might entail.
“We’ll make that announcement tomorrow as to how we are going to handle the question of Phase II, as to whether we enter, when we enter, how we enter it,” he said.
On Monday, June 8, Hutchinson told reporters that he would not be taking a regional approach to reopening the state at the current time. “We’re not ready to make any jumps or changes in that direction. We’ll continue to evaluate exactly what is the option if there should be an option from how we’re looking at the state,” he said.
He attributed the decision to not take the regional approach to the unpredictability of COVID-19’s spread. Hutchinson cited the different COVID-19 trend lines throughout Arkansas as evidence of the virus’ unpredictability and the difficulty of having different regions opening up while others remained closed.
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