35 additional COVID-19 cases reported in HSC

With 35 additional COVID-19 cases reported in Hot Spring County in the past 24 hours, the county is listed among top counties for new cases.

Other counties include Pulaski with 74, Benton with 71, Garland with 61, Washington with 54 and Hot Spring with 35.

In total, Hot Spring County has had 4,782 COVID-19 cases with 4,349 being confirmed. Eighty-two cases are labeled as confirmed and active. There have also been 4,623 total recoveries with 4,207 being confirmed.

The number of deaths is at 68 with 60 being confirmed.

Arkansas on Thursday reported 726 new virus cases, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 318,122. The state’s deaths from COVID-19 rose by 10 to 5,397 and its hospitalizations grew by 26 to 522.

Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases in Arkansas has decreased by about 66 percent, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University researchers.

“We continue to vaccinate Arkansans at a high level. I want to give credit to our staff at the Department of Health, Col. Ator and all our provider partners for their tireless efforts to ensure we can get vaccines into the arms of Arkansans. If Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine is approved, it will provide another tool in our arsenal in the fight against COVID-19,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson is expected to make a “significant announcement on the state of the public health emergency” this morning, according to a notice.

The Arkansas Senate on Thursday voted to refund the fines the state has collected from some businesses for violating coronavirus restrictions.

The measure, which passed 19-14, now heads to the House for a vote and was sponsored by a Republican lawmaker who has sued challenging the state’s coronavirus restrictions. That lawsuit was dismissed by a Pulaski County judge and has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Hutchinson said in a statement he opposed the measure “because it undermines fairness, compliance and public health.”

The vote comes as Hutchinson has faced pushback from some Republican lawmakers over the state’s virus restrictions, which have included a mask mandate and capacity limits for bars and restaurants.