245 new KY COVID-19 cases and 5 deaths. Businesses can up capacity after 1 month.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 245 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 11,708 as the governor said businesses can increase their customer capacity to 50% in coming weeks.
Beshear said restaurants, retail stores and others that have been operating at 33% capacity can increase to 50% one month after they were allowed to reopen. That means retail businesses can increase capacity on June 20, restaurants on June 22, barber shops and salons on June 25, and fitness centers on July 1.
“That means we have gotten the practices in, they are becoming a part of what we’re doing and that will be the next phase that we will be able to move towards,” Beshear said.
The state is on track to reopen child care centers on June 15 and bars and competitive low-touch youth sports on June 29. Beshear said the Kentucky State Fair will be allowed to take place in August, but with several restrictions.
“The state fair will look very different, most of it will be occurring outside,” Beshear said.
There will be fewer vendors and any concerts will take place outside. “They’ve put together a very comprehensive proposal,” he said.
Beshear also announced five new deaths Tuesday, bringing the state’s death toll to 477. At least 64 percent of the deaths have been related to nursing homes. At least 1,463 nursing home residents have tested positive for the virus, an increase of 10 since yesterday, and 699 staff members, an increase of 26. Beshear said most of the staff members who have tested positive have been asymptomatic, although three nursing home employees have died.
So far, at least 287,597 coronavirus tests have been conducted in Kentucky, which is the equivalent of 6.44 percent of the population. Beshear said increased testing is one of the most important factors in the state being able to reopen the economy. So far, 4.07 percent of the tests have been positive.
“We’ve got to continue to keep our tests up,” Beshear said. “That gives us data we need going forward.”
He said if people continue to get tested, and with increased contract tracing, the state will be able to target hot spots and help prevent the disease from spreading too much.
There are currently 525 people in the hospital with the virus, 75 of whom are in intensive care. Beshear said the fact that those numbers have remained relatively stable means the state has enough hospital capacity to handle a spike. At least 3,365 people have recovered from the virus.
Many of the new cases have come from the state’s largest counties.
“We’re seeing 20 to 60 percent of our cases on a given day come from Jefferson County,” Beshear said.
The state has reported a higher number of cases in Louisville than the city government over the past week, sometimes by more than 200 cases.
Fayette County announced 19 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 4:56 PM.
