Beshear says coronavirus on the decline in Kentucky. 141 new cases and 5 deaths.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 141 new cases of COVID-19 Friday in Kentucky, bringing the state’s total to 8,426 on the same day restaurants reopened across the state and Kentuckians were allowed to gather in groups of 10 or fewer people.
“We now think that we have not just plateaued, but that we are actually in decline,” Beshear said. “Which is really good news.”
The percentage of people testing positive for the virus has dropped significantly over the past two weeks. On Friday, 4.92 percent of the people who have been tested were positive, which is the lowest percentage since March.
Beshear also announced 5 new deaths, bringing the state’s death toll to 391. At least 477 Kentuckians are currently in the hospital with the disease, 90 of which are in intensive care. At least 3,069 people have recovered from the virus.
Still, Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, urged people to be cautious over the weekend.
“The danger is there if we take our eye off the ball,” Stack said, urging people to practice social distancing and stay home if they are at risk. “We could find ourselves in late June paying very dearly for our actions today.”
Beshear also released reopening guidlines for low-contact youth sports, fitness centers and movie theaters. His guidelines for low-contact youth sports will allow kids to practice — not compete — starting June 15 for many sports, including biking, tennis, golf, mini-golf, horseback riding, cross-country, baseball, softball and teeball. He said groups of ten for high-contact sports (such as ice hockey, basketball, cheerleading, karate and volleyball) would be allowed to do group workouts, but would not be allowed to practice.
By June 29, the low-contact sports would be allowed to resume competition with up to 50 spectators. High-touch sports would be allowed to resume practices on that date.
There is no full list of which sports are defined as high-contact and which sports are classified as low contact. There are just “examples” of sports listed in the categories.
Gyms, which are allowed to open on June 1, will have to space out all of their equipment by at least six feet and will only be allowed to hold fitness classes in groups smaller than 10. Like all other businesses, they will have to get rid of waiting areas.
Theaters must operate at 33 percent capacity and sell tickets online whenever possible.
The state unveiled the website where people can go to request an absentee ballot Friday. The website is govoteky.com. It closes June 15 and the primary is June 23.
Everyone is being encouraged to vote by mail to avoid long lines on Election Day, when most counties will only have one polling place out of concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Election day is going to look a lot different,” said Secretary of State Michael Adams. “We’re still working on what that will look like precisely.”
More than a third of Kentucky’s workforce has filed for unemployment amid the pandemic. Josh Benton, the deputy director of the Cabinet for Education and Workforce Development, said the state is still processing 14,000 claims from March and 38,000 claims from April.
Starting Sunday, all recipients of unemployment benefits must request payment every two weeks, Benton said. No benefits will be distributed automatically.
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 5:30 PM.
