By Ray King
Arkansas recorded 383 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, but state officials are not quite ready to pat themselves on the back and talk about a trend, especially after more than 1,000 cases were reported less than a week ago.
State Health Officer Dr. Jose Romero said Tuesday that it the numbers remain low for the next two or three days, then they can talk about a trend.
Both Romero and Governor Asa Hutchinson attributed the most recent number to state residents wearing masks and social distancing.
Of the 383 new cases, 69 of them are in correctional facilities and the remaining 313 are community cases. There are currently 507 people hospitalized, that’s one less than on Monday, and there have been 11 additional deaths, bringing the total to 566.
The 383 new cases bring to 50,411 the total number of cumulative cases in the state since the pandemic began. Of those, 6,847 are active cases and 42,998 people have recovered.
Romero said with the lower number of cases, only three counties reported more than 20 new cases. They were Pulaski County with 63, Sebastian County with 31 and Carroll County with 20. No other county in the state had 20 or more.
National reports have said that cases of COVID-19 among school children have increased significantly in the past few weeks but Romero said numbers from the state in both the 5 to 10 year-old and the 10 to 18 year-old age groups show reported cases going down.
