LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas prisons are being locked down for at least two weeks because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases among staff and prisoners.
The Arkansas Department of Corrections announced Friday that prisons are prohibiting visits and “limiting non-essential movement within and between facilities” until Jan. 14.
After that, prison leaders say they will assess whether the lockdown should be extended.
The announcement in Arkansas comes as the state is seeing record-breaking tallies of new infections driven by the omicron variant.
On Thursday, the state reported 4,978 new cases, its highest one-day count of confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
