Asa Hutchinson and state health officials conducted their daily COVID-19 briefing from De Queen Friday, holding the city and the hard-hit Southwest Arkansas county up as an example Friday of what can be done to slow the spread of the coronavirus. “What you have been doing has made a difference.”“There’s probably not been any county that’s been hit as hard by the COVID-19 outbreak as this county,” said Smith. According to the Arkansas Department of Health, 88 of those cases are currently active, 684 have recovered, and nine people have died. While Friday’s new cases and data have not yet been updated on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, Smith said Sevier had seven new cases, bringing the cumulative total to 788. Statewide, Arkansas now has 26,803 cases and 313 deaths after adding 751 new cases and four more deaths since Thursday.

Source: The Local July 10, 2020 16:41 UTC