During his daily press conference, Governor Hutchinson said that though the number of new COVID-19 cases is high, "it is also predictable." There were 36 newly hospitalized patients, and there were 806 new cases reported.
Also during the conference, the Governor announced that, "after hearing from numerous educators and parents across the state of Arkansas, the 2020-2021 start date... will be moved forward from the week of August 13 to the week of August 24th and to start no later than August 26th." And Governor Hutchinson says that they are moving the start date to "give the schools more time in order to make the adjustments necessary, to make sure their campus is ready, to make sure that the teachers are ready for the blended learning experience," that will be used this coming school year.
Governor Hutchinson also unveiled the plan that has been developed in the case of an outbreak of COVID-19 in a specific school district and "what they see as the result of the case... what they see in the level of spread in the community."
You can see the entire press conference with full details about the responses and the scheduling of the new school year as well as information about what we can expect across the state in the days and weeks to come.