Kentucky COVID-19 cases up by 242. Total is 1,693. State to quarantine churchgoers.
Gov. Andy Beshear on Friday announced 242 new cases of novel coronavirus in Kentucky, the largest single-day increase yet, bringing the statewide total to at least 1,693.
Eleven more Kentuckians have died from COVID-19 complications, the governor said, bringing the total number of deaths to 90.
Each day, Kentucky’s COVID-19 caseload continues to escalate with increasingly wider margins, and Beshear said that trend will continue as the surge of infection gains momentum. Friday was no different, as the governor noted it was the state’s “single largest number of new cases.”
As the state climbs toward its peak, Beshear said he would order anyone who attended an in-person church service or other gathering this Easter weekend in violation of his executive orders to self-quarantine for two weeks. This is so their decision “can’t spread the virus to another individual who can spread the virus to another individual,” and so on, the governor said.
In Lexington, officials announced nine new coronavirus cases, for a total of 197, and in Louisville, another 32 people have contracted the viral respiratory disease, for a total of 520. Local officials in the state’s largest city also said six more of its residents have died.
Those whose deaths were announced on Friday across Kentucky include a 73-year-old man, a 75-year-old man, a 73-year-old man, a 68-year-old man, a 92-year-old man, and a 66-year-old man, all in Jefferson County; a 77-year-old man in Butler County; a 75-year-old woman in Meade County; a 75-year-old man in McCracken County; an 80-year-old man in Hopkins County, and an 81-year-old man in Daviess County.
At least 24,288 people have been tested for the virus. Of those infected, 459 have been hospitalized, and 271 currently are hospitalized. At least 177 have been admitted to the intensive care unit with the virus — at least 105 are currently in hospital ICUs, Beshear said.
“We are not at our peak,” and it’s going to take some time to get there, he said.
“I like that we all want to defeat” the virus, he said, but “one of the only ways [we’re going to be] able to start easing restrictions” is if Kentucky has “the capacity to test a whole lot of people that we aren’t right now.”
Doing so would “require a capacity for testing that doesn’t exist in the United States, anywhere,” Beshear said.
COVID-19 a growing problem in nursing homes
Community spread of the virus at nursing homes across the commonwealth is a growing problem, Beshear said. On Friday, he announced 75 new cases related to long-term care facilities across the commonwealth — 37 are residents and 38 are staff. At least 29 nursing home facilities have been impacted by the virus and 18 patients have died, he said.
Just after 5 p.m. on Friday, the Cumberland Valley District Health Department announced 34 new cases at Jackson Manor, a Signature HealthCARE nursing home in Jackson County. Jackson County has a total of 41 cases. It was not immediately clear if those new cases were included in Beshear’s totals.
Eighteen of those 34 new cases are residents of the nursing home, and 16 are staff, the health department said. The facility, as a result, has tested all residents and staff, in order to “reduce spread by asymptomatic individuals and protect those who have not yet been exposed,” the local health department said in a statement.
State to require church attendees to quarantine
Expecting that a “handful” of churches and other groups across Kentucky will defy his executive order and have in-person mass gatherings on Easter Sunday, Beshear said local officials are being directed to record license plate numbers of participants to pass to local health departments.
Those who attend these gatherings can expect public health officials to show up at their doors with mandates that they self-quarantine for 14 days, the governor said.
“If you’re going to expose yourself to this virus, it’s not fair to everybody else out there that you might spread it to,” Beshear said. “Understand, this is the only way we can ensure your decision doesn’t kill somebody else.”
This order doesn’t apply to drive-in services.
71,625 unemployment payments made Thursday
The state continues ironing out the kinks in its unemployment insurance enrollment system, the governor said. On Thursday, the state made 71,625 payments to already enrolled Kentuckians, equaling nearly $43 million, and there’s more to come.
“If we have not been able to get you in the system, we understand you’re anxious, that you’re frustrated,” Beshear said. “But we are doing the best we can with the largest volume [of enrollees] in our history. We promise we will get to you. We will make it right.”
Those payments included the extra $600 that came with the federal CARES Act.
Kentuckians can call 1-833-KYSAFER to report people and businesses not following social distancing guidelines issued by federal and state officials. Wait times could be long, Beshear warned, saying the phone line got more than 2,000 calls in its first day.
Visit Kentucky’s coronavirus website, kycovid19.ky.gov, for more guidance about the disease.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 5:56 PM.
