By Ray King
Arkansas has gone over the 10,000 mark in terms of positive cases of COVID-19, according to Governor Asa Hutchinson.
In his daily update Tuesday, the Governor said 10,080 cases have been reported since early March which included 340 new cases on Monday. Of those 340, 34 were in correctional facilities and 106 in communities.
It was the first time the Governor has conduced the update from Jefferson Regional Hospital where the state’s first case of COVID-19 was reported.
Two additional hospitalizations were reported, bringing the state’s total to 173 and there were six additional deaths in Arkansas with that total now standing at 161.
State Health Officer Dr. Nate Smith said of the 10,080 reported cases, 3.044 are considered active and there have been 6,865 people who have recovered.
He also talked specifically about the Southeast Region, saying that 2,580 cases have been reported with 1,809 of them in correctional facilities and the remaining 771 in communities. There have been 44 deaths associated with COVID-19 in the Southeast Region, 32 of them in community settings and the remaining 12 in correctional facilities.
Smith said of the 559 people who tested positive for COVID-19, 370 were in the community and the remaining 239 were in correctional facilities.
He said there are currently four people hospitalized at Jefferson Regional, one of them in the Intensive Care Unit, and said the number of deaths reported was higher than the rest of the state.
Hutchinson also said he would make an announcement Wednesday on when and how the state will move to Phase Two of reopening and declined to answer a question about whether different regions will move to Phase Two at different times.
