Arkansas is second only to Louisiana in the country for new COVID-19 cases per capita. Reporting new cases at a rate over 40/100K in the past two weeks according to the New York Times.

Arkansas cases grew by 2000 Friday resulting in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to restrict its visitor policies. State Corona Virus cases are at 372,313 since the beginning of the pandemic, hospitalizations at 871, intensive care patients at 328, and 159 ventilators in use.

UAMS will now only be letting patients have one visitor per day as a result of the increase infection rate and at least one know circumstance of a patient being infected by a visitor. End-of-life patients will not be restricted. Visitors will continue to be required to pass a daily health screening and to wear masks and ID badges. Visitors will also only be allowed in the patients room.

Hutchinson on Thursday said his focus is on increasing the state’s vaccination rate, and legislative leaders have said they’re continuing to have discussions with lawmakers about the issue.

Hutchinson said he was pleased by the 14,294 additional vaccine doses administered in the state since Thursday. But, with the increase in active cases and hospitalizations, Hutchinson said “we’re in a race to get more vaccines into arms before school starts.”

See full article from KY3 here.