Kentucky expanding COVID-19 testing to all who want it. 196 new cases and 14 deaths.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 196 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky Wednesday, bringing the state’s total to 3,373 as Kentucky prepares to offer testing to the general public for the first time.
Beshear also announced 14 new deaths, bringing Kentucky’s death toll to 185. At least 1,311 patients with the new coronavirus have recovered and 301 are in the hospital, including 161 people in intensive care.
Results from at least 2,747 COVID-19 tests came back Wednesday, a 7 percent increase from Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 36,075 people tested (around .81 percent of Kentucky’s population).
The number of people tested will continue to increase as Beshear for the first time said the general public will be allowed to get tested for COVID-19 at sites operated by Kroger. That includes sites operating Thursday in Pikeville, Somerset, Madisonville and Paducah, as well as sites planned for next week in Lexington, Louisville, Owensboro and Bowling Green. Individuals can register for a free test at krogerhealth.com/covidtesting.
“Don’t be scared to get a test,” Beshear said, saying the state needs more data on how many people have the disease in order to reopen businesses. “If you have symptoms, please get a test.”
Another new testing site in operated by Walgreens at 2296 Executive Drive in Lexington will open Friday and run seven days a week. The Walgreens site will be restricted to 200 tests a day and will be open to anyone older than 18 who is showing symptoms and any health care worker. Individuals can sign up at walgreens.com/coronavirus.
The Kroger testing site in Lexington will open on Monday at Bluegrass Community and Technical College on Newtown Pike. Beshear said the testing site at BCTC, as well as one in Louisville, will have a capacity of 1,500 tests a week and will be open for two weeks. The testing sites in Owensboro and Bowling Green will be open Tuesday through Thursday and can each test 1,000 people.
Beshear said officials wanted a drive-in testing site at BCTC because it is in close proximity to neighborhoods that have a high black population.
“It is particularly important for testing to be available near African-American neighborhoods,” Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said in a video message.
Black people have been disproportionately affected by the virus, with a higher death rate than their share of the population both in Lexington and statewide. In Lexington, black people make up 30 percent of the confirmed COVID-19 cases but only 15 percent of the population. Statewide, about 18 percent of the people who have died have been black even though only about 8.4 percent of Kentucky’s population is black.
Existing state drive-thru testing sites in Madisonville, Somerset, Paducah and Pikeville tested 571 people Wednesday, as of 4 p.m. They have the combined capacity to test more than 1,200 people a day.
Beshear said the state plans to deploy 20,000 tests a week, which would be a significant increase from the current rate of COVID-19 testing. That would nearly double the 10,209 people who have been tested in Kentucky since April 12.
Around 12,000 of those tests will be supplied to hospitals and nursing homes by the state and will be processed by Gravity Diagnostics. The state partnership with Kroger is expected to test around 4,000 people a week and the Walgreens site will test around 1,400 people a week. The University of Kentucky and University of Louisville will combine for about 1,200 tests a week and Solaris Labs in Nicholasville will test 2,500 a week.
Dr. Steven Stack, the Kentucky commissioner of public health, said the state wants clinicians to make decisions about who should be tested. He also urged hospitals to start testing more people.
Beshear said the state plans to shift some testing capacity to nursing homes, which have been hit hard by the virus. He did not provide an update on how many new cases were confirmed in nursing homes, but a list compiled by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services showed that two nursing homes — Treyton Oaks Towers in Louisville and Rigewood Terrace in Hopkins County — have had at least 10 residents die from coronavirus-related causes.
Increased testing and an increase in personal protective equipment allowed Beshear to announce that certain health care services will start being phased back into operation on Monday. The areas that will be allowed to re-open include diagnostic radiation, non-urgent emergent in-person office and ambulatory visits. Health care facilities will also be allowed to do pre-anesthesia testing in preparation for surgeries.
“It’s still gonna look different,” Beshear said.” There’s not going to be any general waiting room.”
The governor also honored Stanley Lee Buckner, a Lexington resident who died from the virus.
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 6:03 PM.
