ARKANSAS (KNWA/KFTA) — At his daily COVID-19 briefing on Monday, July 13, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) said he will look into tools that work to get people to start wearing masks.
He suggested again that making them mandatory for people is not guaranteed to work.
Hutchinson used Benton County as an example saying the case numbers are going down despite no mask ordinance.
Then he compared Benton County to Pulaski County where there is a mask requirement, yet numbers continue to go up.
“To me it is about behavior and how do you get people to respond to that? We’re all trying different tools. We’re trying to get there and I think as long as we work together as a team we’re going to continue to have success,” said Hutchinson.
The governor said if the cases go up, he will continue to look for new tools to slow the spread.
On Monday, COVID-19 hospitalizations were at a new all-time high of 439. There have been 515 virus recoveries on Monday, too.
There are now 6510 cases of COVID-19 considered active by the Arkansas Department of Health, according to Secretary Dr. Nate Smith, including:
- 5425 in the general community
- 958 in correctional facilities
- 127 in nursing homes
The state reported 5,254 tests performed over the last 24 hours.