Hutchinson speaks Thursday during his daily COVID-19 briefing.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Thursday announced a two-day “Arkansas surge campaign” to increase COVID-19 testing.

Hutchinson said Arkansas has the capacity to test more people, and that anyone who has coronavirus symptoms should go out and get tested immediately. He said the goal is to have 3,000 new people get tested before the weekend.

“If you think you have symptoms, don’t wait,” Hutchinson said. “Get tested.”

He said there is an inventory available for testing right now all across the state, and that increasing tests from 1,000 per day to 1,500 per day is possible if people will just take the time to get tested.

He said the state plans to advertise that message across the state over the next two days.

 

Secretary of Health Dr. Nate Smith said the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Arkansas reached 2,465 on Thursday, which is an increase of 189 since Wednesday. Of those new cases, 122 are from the Cummins Unit prison and 67 are from outside the prison. There were three additional deaths, bringing the toll to 45.

Smith said 39 more people have recovered from the illness, for a total of 902 recoveries since the outbreak began.