August 5, 2020

CURRENT COMMUNITY MITIGATION LEVEL 
PHASE II
Hot Springs Village continues to keep our members informed on the latest information about COVID-19 locally and in the state of Arkansas. Currently, we are continuing to follow Phase 2 Directives from the Arkansas Department of Health.
 
Information on the plans are available online at https://explorethevillage.com/members/hsv-covid-19/.

COVID-19 can be spread by people who do not have symptoms and do not know that they are infected. Masks may help prevent people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others.

Masks, when worn over the nose and mouth, reduce the spray of respiratory droplets when the person wearing them coughs, sneezes, talks, or shouts.


State of Arkansas  
Arkansas hit another grim milestone today, passing 500 reported deaths due to COVID-19 in the state.      
 
Today, 18 more deaths were reported by the governor, bringing the state's total to 508. 
  
It took Arkansas 68 days to reach its first 100 deaths after the first case was detected on March 11. It took 31 days, May 18-June 18, to reach the next 100 deaths. After that, Arkansas reached 300 deaths on July 7, 19 days later. It took another 19 days for Arkansas to reach 400. It took just 10 more days for the state to go from 400 to 500 deaths from COVID-19.    
 
Today, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that 912 new cases of COVID-19 were detected in the last 24 hours in the state. This brings the state's cumulative cases to 46,293.  
 
Of the 46,293 cases, 6,937 are considered active with 88 in nursing homes, 513 in correctional facilities and 6,336 in the community.
 
When it came to today's cases, 158 were detected in correctional facilities and 754 were detected in the community at large. Counties with the highest number of new cases today included Pulaski County with 79 additional cases, Garland County with 29 new cases and Saline County with 26 additional cases.
 
Hutchinson said that 5,077 people were tested for the virus in the last 24 hours. That brings the total test number for August to 23,078.   
 
Hospitalizations decreased by 10 since yesterday, bringing the total currently hospitalized to 516. Of those hospitalized, 106 are on ventilators. 
 
During the briefing, Hutchinson announced that interim Health Secretary Jose Romero will be stepping into the role full-time. He also announced a new plan to test 100 percent of state prisoners held in Arkansas correctional facilities, calling upon 10 national guardsmen to assist with the testing.
 
Education Secretary Johnny Key announced the Ready for School Resource Call Center in which parents and educators can all with questions about schools and the virus. The call center's number is 1-833-353-6050. 
 
You can view today's COVID-19 briefing  here.   For more statistics on how COVID-19 has impacted Arkansas, click here.   
 
As of Aug. 5 at 2:30 p.m., the United States deaths attributed to COVID-19 are 156,311.     

For a list of COVID-19 testing locations in Arkansas, visit https://govstatus.egov.com/testing-center-map-v2    
 
In yesterday's COVID-19 digest, an incorrect number for cumulative cases was given in the first paragraph. The correct number, 45,381, was used after the incorrect number was used. 
 
Saline & Garland Counties 
As of 4:45 p.m. today, the number of county cases has not been updated on the Arkansas Department of Health's statewide interactive COVID-19 map
   
Cancellations & Postponements 
For a summary of all the closures/postponements and most up to date information concerning COVID-19 please use our website link at https://explorethevillage.com/members/hsv-covid-19/     
 
We invite you to communicate cancellations and postponements to jprice@hsvpoa.org. For changes to our event calendar, please email your information to Katrina Heap at kheap@hsvpoa.org.
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