At Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s daily press briefing, it was announced that the governor had just been on a phone call with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who commended Arkansas on the handling of COVID-19.

Hutchinson opened his briefing on Friday by sharing that Saturday would be the birthdays of his wife, his daughter and his son. However, he maintained that the Hutchinson family would not be gathering together to celebrate in order to comply with social distancing.

There has been criticism on a national scale for Hutchinson’s decision not to issue a stay-at-home order for Arkansas, but Health Secretary Nate Smith revealed that Fauci called Arkansas a “model state.“

During the national press briefing, Fauci remarked on Arkansas and specified that each state was different in regards to the right response to COVID-19. According to Fauci, the states in Middle America are “really committed to making sure they don’t get into the situation where they are going to have spikes in their state.”

Fauci commented, “They don’t get recognized because people don’t talk about them much.” He went on to say these states were “doing an extraordinary job.”

The rate of increase for coronavirus cases in Arkansas remains steady with 77 additional cases for a total of 1,171. With 335 recoveries, there are currently 836 active cases of COVID-19 in the state.

The Arkansas Department of Health originally had a projection curve that went through April 10. This graph had the total number of cases reaching 3,500 one month after the first case, but efforts to flatten the curve proved successful.

Another projection from the University of Washington was the number of hospital beds Arkansas would need one month in. The original projection was 200, but as of Friday, Arkansas had only 86 hospitalizations.

According to Smith, Arkansas’ positive test rate overall was 3.6% — one of the lowest in the country. As of Friday, the fatality rate for Arkansas was 1.8% while other states range between 1% and 5%.

Out of the 50 states, Arkansas is in the top 10 for slowest rate of growth for infections. Smith called this proof that Arkansas’ effort to flatten the curve was working in a tangible way.

Hutchinson took the opportunity to grieve the passing of the first state employee to die because of COVID-19. Richard Richardson was a substance abuse counselor who had been recruited to the University of Arkansas by Lou Holtz. He had worked for the state since graduating college.

In observance of Easter weekend, Hutchinson plans to suspend the daily briefings for Saturday and Sunday unless something happens that Arkansans need to know immediately.