Arkansas sees 824 new virus cases; state to spend $10M on Wi-Fi access for students, governor says

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks to reporters at the state Capitol in Little Rock on Monday in this still of video provided by the governor's office.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks to reporters at the state Capitol in Little Rock on Monday in this still of video provided by the governor's office.

Health officials recorded 824 new coronavirus cases in Arkansas over the previous 24 hours, causing the number of active cases in the state to increase slightly on Monday.

The new cases brought the total number of people in the state who have tested positive for covid-19 to 39,447. Of those, 6,674 were considered active on Monday, meaning those patients have neither recovered nor died.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, speaking at his near-daily press briefing on the pandemic, announced seven new deaths from the virus, bringing the total to 408.

There were 489 people hospitalized with the virus on Monday, an increase of nine from the previous day.

As those numbers were announced, Hutchinson added that lawmakers would reconsider their decision to delay taking action on approving $7 million in federal aid money toward testing, tracing and case management of Hispanic and Marshallese communities in the state, which have been especially hard hit by the virus.

The governor also announced that the state plans to spend another $10 million in funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to purchase wifi access points for families in rural areas so that children may participate in remote learning during the school year.

EARLIER:

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and state health officials will provide an update on Arkansas' covid-19 response at 1:30 p.m.

The total number of coronavirus cases reported in Arkansas remained at 38,623 early Monday afternoon, according to a state website. The death toll remained at 401.

Check back to watch the live video.

[Video not showing up above? Click here to view » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ev3_cOXBQI]

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