LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas’ Republican governor is calling lawmakers back to the Capitol to lift the state’s ban on mask requirements in public schools.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Thursday said he’ll call the majority-Republican Legislature into session likely next week to amend a state law that prohibits state and local government entities from requiring face masks.
Arkansas’ coronavirus cases have skyrocketed in recent weeks because of the delta variant and the state’s low vaccination rate.
Hutchinson also reinstated an emergency declaration because of the virus, two months after he lifted the declaration he issued at the state of the pandemic last year.
