What can reopen in Kentucky during phase one? And what can’t? Here’s the full list.
Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday outlined when specific businesses can begin reopening in mid-May as the coronavirus pandemic lessens in severity.
The loosening of healthy-at-home COVID-19 restrictions is contingent on businesses being able to meet social distancing, masking and sanitizing standards, Beshear said.
“Everything up here is fluid depending on the coronavirus and is fluid depending on what we’re seeing coming in,” Beshear said. “And if things are positive we may be able to move some easy ones up a day or two.”
If the numbers of new coronavirus cases remains steady or declines, Beshear indicated that Phase 2 could begin in June.
On May 11
▪ Non-essential manufacturing and construction, automobile and boat dealerships, professional services at 50 percent of capacity, plus horse racing without fans and pet grooming and boarding.
▪ Beshear said that Churchill Downs will begin accepting horses and stable workers on the racetrack’s stable areas on May 11. Racing will resume but with no spectators in the stands for now.
Beshear said many manufacturing facilities and constructions sites are already up and running, but that all non-essential manufacturing and construction sites will be able to reopen with “some uniform rules throughout.” Those rules should be finalized by Monday, he said.
While car dealerships will be allowed to reopen, Beshear warned that the process of buying a car will be “very different moving forward.” He said test drives will be limited to just one person and that dealerships will have to limit how many people are allowed in the building.
A lot of professional services are already operating remotely and Beshear said people should continue working from home whenever possible.
“If you’ve got an area where telework works, if you can do 30 percent and operate at your top capacity, you ought to.” Beshear said. “Because remember, if you have people coming in just to come in and the coronavirus spreads and we do contact tracing, it may send people into quarantine.”
On May 20
▪ Non-essential retail stores and houses of worship.
Beshear said there will be limits on the numbers of people allowed in a store or church at a time. That will likely be defined as a percentage of the building’s occupancy as set by the fire marshal.
In-person services will be allowed at reduced capacity but will be limited to just the worship service itself. Sunday School, for instance, will have to wait, he said.
It is unclear how houses of worship will have to handle specific parts of the service, such as communion.
“Let’s start here and then let’s have a good dialogue where we can work with those that run our houses of worship to get a plan to be able to do more as we go,” Beshear said.
On May 25
▪ Social gatherings of up to 10 people will be allowed.
▪ Barbers, salons, cosmetology businesses and similar services, he said.
Small social gatherings would be allowed the Monday of Memorial Day Weekend, but Beshear said people would have to wear masks and practice social distancing in order for them to take place.
“If you’re like us, you want to see at least one other couple and their kids,” Beshear said. “This is an opportunity to potentially get there. We want you to know that we think this is possible, but it’s all contingent on all of us doing this right.”
Not in Phase 1
Restaurants, gyms, movie theaters, campgrounds, youth sports, public pools, daycares and summer camps will have to wait until at least June. Beshear said restaurants are particularly problematic because people can’t eat with their mouth covered and because limits on customers could make restaurants not economically viable.
“Restaurants is a tough piece,” Beshear said. “We want to work directly with the association others to make sure it’s safe.”
Pools, daycares and summer camps might not be in phase two, either.
“We can’t do any of this at all if we open a daycare right now,” Beshear said. “If we open a daycare right now, we would see a spike that would ultimately set us back.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 6:03 PM.
