Arkansas was on track to fall short of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's and the Department of Health's testing goal for the second-straight month, Hutchinson told reporters on Monday while expressing optimism that commercial lab numbers will pick up after their summer lag.
The governor set a "high" goal of 190,000 tests for the month of August after he said he received assurances from the White House that testing would ramp up after a slowdown in commercial lab tests resulted in the state falling about 5,000 tests short of its 200,000-test goal for July.
On Monday, the final day of the month, the Arkansas Department of Health had received 181,950 test results, including 4,542 in the previous 24 hours. The Health Department also reported 368 new cases of covid-19 on Monday.
Another 13 deaths were reported on Monday, including several delayed death reports from June and July, bringing the toll to 797.
State Health Secretary Jose Romero said 5,466 Arkansans are considered active patients. A total of 61,224 Arkansans have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic reached the state in March.
