During today's press conference on the status of Arkansas and how the state is faring in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Hutchinson said that we saw a rise in the number of cases, while remaining under the 10% margin that allows Arkansas to remain on track for reopening. It was brought up that out of the 734 new cases, 630 of them were community spread cases, with the remaining cases being reported from correctional facilities and a small percentage being reported from nursing homes.
The jump in new cases from 259 on July 7 to 734 on July 8 may be attributed to the holiday weekend and the decrease in the number of tests processed. During the July 7th press briefing, Governor Hutchinson said, "Even though there's a low number of cases today, I am tempering my enthusiasm and optimism about that simple low number... Let's wait and see what the next few days indicate." It seems that phrase was accurate and reason for the nearly 3x increase in positive cases in the last 24 hours.
According to Dr. Smith, we currently have 5,070 active cases in the community, but we also saw an incredible 671 "patients recovered" in the last day. Watch the full press conference below.