The Health Department was able to do contact tracing on 60% of the new cases reported yesterday. Contact tracers were able to conclude that 24% of the community cases had known contact with a previous case. They were also able to conclude that half of the new cases from Washington County came from just three households. Eight cases in Greene County came from the same street. And 37 of the new cases were connected to clusters at 4 work sites.
Unemployment numbers released today show 10.2% of Arkansans were unemployed during the month of April. The national unemployment rate was at 14.7%. The Governor expects that number to decrease during the month of May as more businesses re-open.

The Department of Commerce has approved 8,198 Arkansas Ready for Business Grants.
More than 7,000 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims have been paid and an additional three thousand claims are expected to be paid tonight. If you received an email about a pending claim, you are encouraged to go back online so it can be processed. There are more than 60 staffers who will be working through the weekend and over the holiday to process claims.

2020 Covid-19_infographic_2020-05-22.pdf