FAYETTEVILLE - Governor Asa Hutchinson announced Monday morning that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has risen to 22. Of the four new cases, two of them were in Central Arkansas, while two new cases were found in Cleburne County (Heber Springs area).
While several of the cases involved healthcare professionals who were already treating confirmed cases, two of the newest cases were contracted during out of state travel.
“I would discourage unnecessary out of state travel during this time of mitigation, because we will all be coming back to school,” Hutchinson said. “We’re all going to be coming back and engaging in activities again and we want to mitigate against the potential size of a future spread.”
While Hutchinson knows not everyone will heed the warnings, he is imploring all Arkansans to understand why these issues are being raised.
“I think that is an important reminder as families look at where to go on Spring Break and what to do,” Hutchinson said. “You have to be mindful of where you’re going and what you are doing, and ask the right questions when you plan these trips. If there is an alternative, that should be considered for the Spring Break period.”
State officials say they are expanding testing over the course of the next week, however the capacity is still limited.
“What we will see in the coming two weeks and even the next week, you will see a significant increase in the number of tests that come back,” Hutchinson noted. “While the majority of those will be negative, you will see an increase of the number of positive cases in the state of Arkansas. Our strategy is to be ahead of the curve and mitigate while we don’t have significant community spread in Arkansas.”
Hutchinson says mitigation strategies like limiting crowd size and closing schools are the major components of fighting the virus.
State officials present at the conference say that your first point of contact if you feel that you have symptoms should be your primary care physician, who can then evaluate and determine the need for whether a COVID-19 test is necessary.