Arkansas governor says several people who attended pool party infected with COVID-19

Several people who attended a swim party in Arkansas have contracted coronavirus, Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) confirmed Saturday. 

“There were positive cases coming out of a high school swim party. A high school swim party that I’m sure everybody thought was harmless. They’re young, they’re swimming, they’re just having activity and positive cases resulted from that,” the governor told reporters Saturday. 

He added that the outbreak was “just an encouragement for us to be disciplined in our activities.”

“During this Memorial (Day) weekend, we want to be out and we want to enjoy ourselves, we want to remember this holiday and those that have served our country and given their lives in service of our country. But let’s be safe and let’s be disciplined at the same time,” Hutchinson said, according to multiple reports.  

The governor also told reporters Saturday that the state is seeing an increase of coronavirus cases in the state, calling it a “second peak” of the pandemic. 

“It’s clear and evident to me that we have one peak, and then we’ve had a deep dip, and then we’re having a second peak right now, and they’re really about 30 days apart,” he said while showing reporters graphs of rolling averages of new coronavirus cases in Arkansas and hospitalizations in the state, among other metrics. 

Hutchinson said that increased testing across the state has allowed health officials to “find more cases,” adding that the increased testing mirrors the increase in cases in the state. He also said that Arkansas hospitals “are in good shape,” despite the increases in coronavirus infections. 

The governor confirmed 163 new cases of the virus in the state Saturday. 

Arkansas has seen a total of 5,775 cases, and officials have not enacted a stay-at-home order to limit the spread of the coronavirus in the state.