LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Since coronavirus hit Arkansas exactly two months ago, you’ve probably seen one of Governor Asa Hutchinson's daily briefings streamed on THV11.
Each day, he and Dr. Nate Smith provide an update on the number of COVID-19 cases in the state.
Many have asked:
When it comes to daily testing numbers, is the state testing the same health care workers, nursing home patients, prisoners over and over again? What about the people being tested to see if they have recovered? Are they included in the daily numbers?
For the answer, we turned to the Arkansas Department of Health.
“The positive, death, recovered, and active case numbers all reflect unique individuals. The negative test numbers include some duplicate testing, but a majority of the total number of negative tests represent unique individuals,” A spokesperson for the department said.
So, tonight, we can verify when repeated testing happens, the active cases and positive results are often not duplicated.
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