Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Thursday he understands why New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered quarantines on travelers from Arkansas and other states, but still, such measures are not helpful to restoring the economy.
"Whenever you look at nine states that cannot do the ordinary travel back and forth and commerce, that does hamper those efforts," the Republican governor said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "We had restrictions early in Arkansas. We did away with those because as you see the fog of the virus spread across the United States, it really affects things."
Hutchinson said that when it comes to New York and New Jersey, his state will continue to supply poultry, beef, and essential products "and we will be going in and out," but at the same time, Arkansas leaders will work hard to reduce the spread of coronavirus there.
As of Thursday morning, Arkansas was reporting 697 new cases and 267 hospitalizations, and Hutchinson said part of the reason is that "some people get complacent" and "it's a very contagious virus."
"In terms of our strategy, we just doubled the number of our contact tracers yesterday that we are going to be bringing on...we are obviously emphasizing testing," said Hutchinson. "You do your testing, you do your tracing, you do your isolation, and we want people to take this seriously."
Meanwhile, Arkansas still has a low death rate, said Hutchinson, but hospitalizations have gone up, so "we want to watch that carefully. We clearly have work to do and we are going to do it here in this state."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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