Today was Dr. Nate Smith’s last day joining the Governor for the daily COVID-19 update before he leaves for a job with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Jose Romero, the Arkansas Department of Health’s chief medical officer, will be the department’s interim head.

Governor Hutchinson announced that former Governor and Senator David Pryor had been released from the hospital. Pryor, 85, was admitted Saturday after testing positive for COVID-19.

Arkansas’ unemployment rate dropped from 9.6% in May to 8% in June, which is below the national average of 11.1%.

City-level data on the number of positive COVID-19 cases will now be made available thanks to efforts by the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI). Any city with fewer than 10 cases will not be reported. For now, ACHI will report only the number of cumulative cases per community, not the number of currently active cases. Data will be updated on a weekly basis.

2020 Covid-19_infographic_2020-07-17.pdf