205 new Kentucky coronavirus cases and 6 deaths in two days. Death toll tops 500.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced on Monday 205 new cases of COVID-19 and six more deaths over the past two days, bringing the state’s total cases to 12,647 and pushing the death toll past 500.
The reported number of cases on Sundays and Mondays have been relatively low in comparison to the rest of the week, largely because fewer labs report cases over the weekend. There are currently 383 people in the hospital with the coronavirus, 63 of whom are in intensive care.
“As of now our reopening continues, but we’re watching it and we’re watching it closely,” Beshear said.
Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, pointed to examples of the virus rising in Arizona, South Carolina and Florida as he urged people to listen to public health guidelines. In Kentucky, the number of tests has gone down over the past two weeks and the rate of people testing positive for the virus has increased.
“If you’re hoping that the virus will take a nap in the summer, it’s 106 degrees in Phoenix today,” Stack said. “We have a disease where we shut down society, we saw it go dormant and go down in many places.”
Stack said Kentucky has had a “very zig-zag pattern” of new coronavirus cases and warned the state is at risk for another spike if “people take their eye off the ball.”
“There is no vaccine, there is no treatment, there is no cure for the coronavirus,” Stack said. “And what that means is that we have to prevent it.”
Beshear stressed the need for people to wear masks, saying it’s advised by all health officials to help stop the disease from spreading. He pleaded with all leaders in the state to set a good example and wear a mask.
“When every single health official, those working for President Trump those working for me, are saying this is the best shot we have, shouldn’t we listen?” Beshear said.
Mark Carter, who is in charge of the state’s contact tracing effort, said the state has hired 180 out of a planned 700 to help track the disease. Carter said people should answer the call when a contact tracer reaches out and said that if the caller asks for your bank or social security information it’s a scam, not someone employed by the state.
The virus has continued to spread through nursing homes. As of Monday, 152 facilities have had cases of the virus, infecting 1,516 residents and 724 staff members and killing 323 people. Around 64 percent of Kentucky’s COVID-19 deaths have been nursing home related.
The virus has continued to have a disproportionate impact on people of color.
“Again we see a disparate impact according to race where COVID-19 is taking a significant amount more of Black Kentuckians than they make up our population,” Beshear said. “Our goal is to stop that.”
In Lexington, the virus has also been disproportionately affecting Hispanic people. The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department said Monday that 24 percent of the people who have caught COVID-19 in Lexington have identified as Hispanic, even though Hispanic people only make up 7 percent of the population. Statewide, 17 percent of the people who have caught the virus have been Hispanic.
As Kentucky is slowly starting to reopen the economy, the state is still processing unemployment requests from March, April and May. Beshear said of the 167,420 requests that were filed in March, around 95 percent have been processed. In April, 429,056 requests were filed and around 94 percent have been processed. In May, 295,879 requests were filed and 94 percent have been processed.
The Beshear administration is still working toward providing guidelines for the reopening of schools in the fall. Beshear warned Monday that the state may have to implemented targeted, temporary shutdowns of schools should an outbreak of the virus occur.
“We’ve got to be prepared for that,” Beshear said.
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 4:37 PM.
