229 new KY COVID-19 cases and 1 death. Wear a mask and get tested, Beshear urges.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 229 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, pushing the total to 14,363 cases less than a week before Kentuckians can gather in groups of 50 people and go to bars.
“We are currently in a manageable phase with the plateau we’re in,” Beshear said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t things we can be doing better.”
Beshear urged people to wear masks and said the moment we stop following the rules is when an outbreak will happen. Beshear announced only one death Wednesday, an 89-year-old man from Laurel County. There have been at least 538 coronavirus-related deaths since the first case in March.
The pandemic has caused historic unemployment in Kentucky, and thousands of people have had trouble getting their unemployment benefits. After long lines in Frankfort last week, Beshear announced Wednesday that his administration is expanding options for people to get in-person help.
Instead of people lining up, people will be able to make appointments online to get in-person help in Frankfort. The state will be offering help next week in Frankfort between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Next Monday and Tuesday, the state will also open offices in Ashland and Owensboro between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. On July 7 and 8, the state will offer in-person help in Somerset and Hopkinsville.
“We don’t want people to have to wait in a line again if they’re not going to be seen,” Beshear said.
Beshear did not release details on where exactly the offices will be located or how to set up an appointment.
Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, said the state has identified two clusters of people who recently returned from Myrtle Beach, where the mayor had to declare a state of emergency.
“I have to continue to urge and beg folks to be careful,” Stack said. “It’s not time to be cavalier.”
Stack said there was a group of 12 Kentuckians who went to Myrtle Beach for three days on June 11 and nine of them tested positive after returning.
Beshear said the state is also seeing a “disturbing increase” of cases in the Cincinnati area, causing the state to watch Northern Kentucky carefully. Kroger will operate a drive-thru testing site next week in Kenton County, along with sites in Lexington, Louisville and Pikeville.
He encouraged people to get tested and announced an increase of around 5,000 tests Wednesday.
Around 64 percent of Kentucky’s coronavirus-related deaths have been related to nursing homes. So far, 1,698 nursing home residents and 812 staff members in nursing homes have tested positive.
There are currently 335 people in the hospital with the virus, 79 of whom are in intensive care. Beshear said 50 percent of hospital beds are available. Around 3.9 percent of the people who were tested have been positive.
“We have plenty of ventilator capacity to deal with a surge if we have one,” Beshear said.
Beshear said people can’t go about their lives as if things were normal right now, stressing the need for people to reduce the number of contacts they have in a single day by half as more things reopen.
“On Monday, just about everything is open in some capacity,” Beshear said. “Pick and choose what you do on a given day.”
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 4:26 PM with the headline "229 new KY COVID-19 cases and 1 death. Wear a mask and get tested, Beshear urges.."
