Governor adamant on mask mandates

WASHINGTON -- With classrooms about to reopen, counteracting the delta variant must be a top priority, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told the Reagan Institute Summit on Education on Thursday.

Mask mandates won't be one of the tools in the state's anti-covid arsenal, he said.

The number of new coronavirus infections is roughly double what they were a year ago as the delta variant spreads, state public health data shows.

"Arkansas got hit very, very early on [with the delta variant]. Our cases are high right now. Our hospitalizations are high," Hutchinson said during a session titled "The State of Education: Arkansas."

"We were at a point in Arkansas that we had dipped down to where it [covid-19] was almost a non-issue. Life was normal. And everybody thought it was done with. Well, this covid, once again, surprised us. It came back with a tougher variant that is causing real problems" he said.

Read more: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/jul/23/governor-adamant-on-mask-mandates/?news-arkansas