LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson held an impromptu press conference Thursday, July 29, to announce he would be reinstating a statewide public health emergency and that he will be calling on members of the legislature to reconvene to amend a law banning public schools from instating mask mandates. His announcements come as nearly 3,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Arkansas over the last 24 hours.
Hutchinson said the public health declaration will last 60 days and has to be approved by the Arkansas General Assembly, who voted in the spring to strip the governor of powers to instate public health emergencies solely.
He said the reasoning for the public health proclamation was due to staffing issues at hospitals. The emergency order will allow for the ease of licensing new healthcare professionals and allow the state to request help from other states to address staffing needs.
Hutchinson also said he spoke with the White House and requested a federal surge response team to come to Arkansas. He hopes the team will help state leaders strategize ways to maximize hospital space for COVID patients.
His second big announcement of the day was that he is calling on lawmakers to come together again to amend Act 1002, which prohibits school districts from making decisions concerning public health, such as mask mandates. Hutchinson said it would be a heavy lift to get the bill amended, but he hopes lawmakers will see that it's necessary to provide local school boards the ability to protect students that can not receive COVID-19 vaccines.
Hutchinson emphasized that the amending of Act 1002 will not include allowing public governments to enforce mask mandates and that there will be no statewide mask mandate.
You can watch Gov. Hutchinson's full announcement in the video below.