By Ray King
Nearly 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the past 24 hours and in the case of two Arkansas counties, a majority of the new cases involved people age 18 to 24.
During his daily COVID-19 briefing, Governor Asa Hutchinson said Washington County, where the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is located, reported 211 new cases with 81-percent being 18-to 24. Jefferson County, home of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff reported 38 new cases, with 50-percent of them being 18 to 24 years old.
There were a total of 969 new cases statewide, bringing the cumulative total to 63,081. Hospitalizations declined by 10 to 470 and deaths increased by 20 to 861. State Health Officer Dr. Jose Romero said 9 of those deaths were from nursing homes with eight of them coming from one nursing home in Mississippi County.
In addition to Washington and Jefferson Counties, other counties recording 20 or more new cases were Pulaski County with 90, Benton County with 47, Sebastian County with 36, Saline County with 33, Faulkner County with 27 and Craighead County with 25.
Secretary of Corrections Solomon Graves announced that beginning Tuesday, the Department of Corrections will resume intake of males at the Quachita River Correctional Facility at Malvern which had been halted since June because of an outbreak of COVID-19 cases. There are now 1,484 males being held at county jails in the state.
