190 new Kentucky coronavirus cases and two deaths over two days.
Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday announced 190 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky over the last two days, for a statewide total of at least 11,476. Two more people with the virus have died, bringing the death toll to at least 472.
On Sunday there were 70 new cases — “one of the lowest numbers we’ve seen” — and Monday saw 120 new cases. Sunday and Monday tend to bring lower case numbers.
These totals are down from a string of days last week where new case numbers exceeded 250. The recent uptick in cases is “certainly” due to Kentuckians having more contacts as the economy reopens and as social activities resume, the governor said.
The state’s weekly rate of people who test positive has crept up over the last three weeks, Beshear said, from just over 2 percent in late May, to nearly 3 percent last week.
Beshear stopped short of concluding whether Kentucky’s rate of new cases had reversed its decline, saying, “we still don’t have enough data from last several days to have a full conclusion.”
The two people who died were a 51-year-old woman from Daviess County and a 66-year-old man from Hardin County, Beshear said.
The virus continues to kill black Kentuckians at disproportionately high rates — black residents make up about 8 percent of the state population, but account for more than 16 percent of deaths related to COVID-19, Beshear said, calling it a symptom of “systematic racism that’s existed in our health care system” for generations.
That’s in part why he committed on Monday to providing health insurance to every black Kentuckian, saying, “we’re going to make it happen.”
At least 486 people are currently hospitalized with the virus, 76 of whom are in intensive care, and 3,359 people have recovered.
The rate of testing continues to increase. The state has administered about 40,000 tests each week since May 11, which Beshear called “very significant.” At least 285,358 tests have so far been conducted.
Since last Thursday, 69 residents and 34 staff at nursing homes tested positive for the virus. Seven have died, including the third long-term care facility employee. At least one positive case was diagnosed in 11 new facilities.
“Again, this is where this virus causes so much death and so much suffering,” Beshear said.
Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander, who has been overseeing universal testing of Kentucky’s nursing homes, said the state will have tested residents in more than half of those facilities by the end of the week.
So far, the state’s positive rate for nursing home patients is 34 per 100,000, compared with the national average of 62 per 100,000, Friedlander said. The death rate is 12 percent in Kentucky, compared with close to 28 percent nationally.
At the close of the news conference in Frankfort, Beshear was asked about a COVID-19 outbreak at Clays Mill Baptist Church in Nicholasville, where at least 17 members caught the virus. In-person services at the church resumed on May 10, roughly two weeks before the state had planned.
“I hope that everybody [who] tested positive from services at Clays Mill has seen or talked to a doctor,” he said. “We want all of you to be OK.”
The pastor of the church, Jeff Fugate, advocated for churches to reopen alongside Attorney General Daniel Cameron in late April, when Cameron threatened to sue Beshear if he didn’t rescind an executive order barring in-person worship services.
Fugate stood with Cameron and said, ‘Governor, we can do this safely,’” Beshear said Monday. “Well, he couldn’t.”
The governor said his directive barring churches from holding in-person services, which is no longer in effect, was never about keeping people from church but “making sure people weren’t harmed” and “protecting human life.”
“Let’s make sure that when any facility, not just a house of worship, is opened, that we are truly ready and that we take the guidance seriously,” Beshear said. “That you don’t just give lip service to these guidelines.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 4:56 PM.
