As Virus Cases Spike in Arkansas, the Governor Backtracks on Masks Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a law banning mask mandates. Now he wants to unravel it, reflecting the dilemma for Republican governors across the South, where the health crisis has deepened. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has traveled throughout Arkansas to urge residents to get coronavirus vaccines.Credit...Kelsi Brinkmeyer/The Texarkana Gazette, via Associated Press Aug. 3, 2021Updated 8:16 p.m. ET LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — In March, with the number of new coronavirus cases plummeting in Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson let expire the statewide mask mandate that some of his fellow Republicans had opposed from the beginning.