Governor Hutchinson COVID-19 7/17/2020 Press Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoTaVdC0yKU
>Economic crisis- state unemployment rate has declined again from 9.6% in May to 8% in June. National average is 11%.
> Yesterday: 31,114 cases. Up 648 to 31,762 cumulative counties
> 6,633 active- 131 in nursing homes, 101 in correctional facilities, 5,489 in community cases
> 581 recovered yesterday; 24,776 total recovered.
> Pulaski 68, Washington 44, Craighead 32, Pope 30, Benton 29, Garland 24, Sebastian 22, Saline 21,
> 5,861 tested in last 24 hours
> Down 6 to 464 hospitalizations
> Up 12 to 353 deaths.
> Arkansas Center for Health improvement- Dr. Joe Thompson
> City level data is now available for COVID cases through ACHI- Arkansas Center for Health Improvement
> Will be tripling the contact tracing capacity in the next month.
> Hopefully doubling the capacity for testing in public health labs.
> Through ACHI (Arkansas Center for Health Improvement) 600 communities have cases in Arkansas (did not report on communities with less than 10 cases)
> Emphasized that enforcement is necessary for the mask mandate. But communities of course will be able to prioritize needs for enforcement.
> City Chiefs of Police have a role to play and will be acting based upon the local priorities.
>A lot of people are taking vacation- did they go to a hot spot, what were they doing- ought to consider if they should be tested and if they should quarantine.
> Please continue to be vigilant against the virus. There is still a lot of community spread. Follow the guidelines with washing hands, wearing masks, avoid large groups, maintain physical distancing.