Closure order issued for KY massage therapist, cosmetologist flouting COVID-19 rules

Officials in Pike County have issued cease and desist orders to two residents, a cosmetologist and massage therapist, who continued to provide services in their homes despite a directive from Gov. Andy Beshear that closed all non-essential businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pike County Health Department officials visited the homes of the two individuals multiple times after receiving complaints, then sent a law enforcement officer when the individuals refused to comply.

Asked how the individuals responded to the orders, Pike County Public Health Director Tammy Riley said “the situation escalated.”

“If applicable, we will report back to their state boards,” Riley said.

During a news conference Thursday, Riley said the county has received “many complaints” about businesses or individuals who have reportedly failed to comply with social distancing orders, but most have complied with subsequent requests to change their policies or behaviors.

Thursday’s two cease and desist orders are the only ones issued by the county so far.

Pike County Judge-Executive Ray Jones said he heard reports that a local church planned to hold an Easter egg hunt at Fishtrap Lake, a local park, this weekend despite his order to close down all parks in the county.

The church’s plans would have also conflicted with a directive from Gov. Andy Beshear, who asked residents to not have large family gatherings on Easter — let alone an Easter egg hunt.

Pike County confirmed two additional cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

One, a 69-year-old man, was tested positive at Pikeville Medical Center. Another, a 78-year-old female, was tested at Appalachian Regional Healthcare’s Tug Valley facility, and is still hospitalized.

Pike County has three confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Thurday.

Jones said he has personally seen people violating his order to one have one person per shopping cart at a local WalMart, and said he will have no choice but to implement even stricter rules, including a curfew, if people continue to violate the orders.

Beshear’s executive order yesterday limited the amount of people allowed in a grocery or retail store to one person per household, and banned door-to-door solicitations.

Jones, who said he wished the federal government would issue a national stay-at-home directive, issued an order to limit the number of shoppers to one person per cart a week before Beshear announced his yesterday.

“If you think it’s not gonna happen to Eastern Kentucky, you’re wrong,” Jones said. “This is only the beginning. Now, more than ever, we have to act to contain the spread of this disease.”

Officials from Appalachian Regional Healthcare and Pikeville Medical Center have warned that a large portion of Eastern Kentucky’s population would be at high risk of serious illness if COVID-19 became widespread.

The region has some of the highest rates of obesity (39 percent), diabetes (24 percent), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (between 12 and 17 percent) in the state, Riley said.

Former and current coal miners will be at especially high risk.

“If this disease breaks out widespread throughout Pike County, it could have a horrific, horrific result,” Jones said. “We could have a lot of people die, and a lot of people get very, very sick.”

Even for a county with so few cases, Jones said taking steps now will be key to keeping the death toll as low as possible. He criticized members of the community who were skeptical about social distancing and critical of himself and Beshear for implementing public health orders.

More than 16,000 in the U.S. have died from coronavirus-complications so far. Some estimates project the total will reach from 60,000 to 140,000.

Dr. Fadi Al Akhrass, the chief of staff at Pikeville Medical Center’s infectious disease department, said the peak of the disease’s spread could come to rural communities, including Eastern Kentucky, three to five weeks after the peak for urban areas.

“In an area where most people consider themselves pro-life, it’s inconceivable that people want to minimize what 60,000 people dying really is,” Jones said. “Those are parents, their children, their siblings, their friends, people you might go to church with, and I don’t understand that.”