Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday tied a recent uptick of coronavirus cases in his state to expanded testing — not necessarily an easing of virus-related restrictions.
“Right now, part of it is because we’ve almost doubled the number of tests that we’re doing,” Mr. Hutchinson said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We increased our testing; we increased our radar system so we know what’s coming in advance, and I attribute it to that.”
The state on Thursday reported 455 more cases, which was the biggest daily increase since the outbreak started.
“I also attribute it to the fact that we know what’s going on out there, but when you look at the data you see it spread out among the state — you don’t see a large outbreak in a particular area,” he said.
Arkansas is one of a handful of states that didn’t impose a statewide stay-at-home order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, though there have been some restrictions.
Mr. Hutchinson also said over the weekend that a few people who attended a high school swim party recently tested positive.
He pointed out that restaurants and facilities that are following guidelines don’t attract widespread attention.
“We re-educate, we learn by experience, but we dig in there real deep so that if we have an identity of one of the restrictions we lifted is causing an outbreak, we can address it and we can tighten that up,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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