COVID-19 deaths and cases continue to rise in Northeast Arkansas

COVID-19 has now claimed more than 100,000 lives nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and the growth in cases and deaths in Northeast Arkansas remains unthwarted.

Crittenden County is now approaching 300 confirmed cases and the Arkansas Department of Health is reporting that nine are now dead in the county that abuts the Mississippi River. In adjacent St. Francis County, the number of cases has ballooned to 639, but there is still only one reported death there.

The number of cases in Craighead County has reached 188, but as of Tuesday (May 26) there have been no pandemic-related deaths in the region’s most populous county. In nearby Lawrence County there have been 82 reported cases and five deaths. Sharp County has had 42 test positive and two deaths, while Poinsett County has had 30 cases and two deaths as well.

A few counties in Northeast Arkansas are reporting few or no cases, but officials have warned for weeks that the numbers being released are not necessarily indicative of how many actual cases there might be in a city or a county. In Clay County, there have only been four reported cases, while in Jackson County there’s only one case.

Jonesboro and Craighead County have been identified as a potential hot spot in the state for cases in the coming weeks. Gov. Asa Hutchinson is scheduled to meet with local lawmakers on Wednesday and hold his regularly scheduled press conference from Jonesboro tomorrow afternoon.