282 new Kentucky coronavirus cases and 5 deaths. ‘We have to talk about masks.’
Kentucky has 282 new cases of COVID-19, putting the statewide total at 15,624, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday, adding that the state’s rate of new cases remains plateaued.
“While we are not seeing the type of very concerning spike in so many other states,” the governor said, “it’s something we’ve got to watch very carefully.”
Five more people with the virus have died, edging the statewide death toll up to 565.
At the Tuesday news conference, both Beshear and Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack became more pointed in their directive that Kentuckians must wear masks to prevent case surges that several other states are reporting, including in South Carolina, Florida and Arizona, leading leaders in those states to backpedal and close businesses and institute mandatory mask-wearing rules.
“We have to talk about masks,” the governor said. “I’m worried about, with summer here, how many people may not be following the rules.”
With the Fourth of July quickly approaching and now that bars can open at partial capacity in Kentucky, Beshear warned bar owners, “if you let people pack in . . . that’s exactly how things spread.”
Remember, he said, “everybody who dies from getting this has [contracted it] from somebody else,” he said.
If Kentucky has to close businesses, again, “it will be because we, the individual Kentuckians, did not take the responsibility to follow the rules safely,” he said. While Kentucky is not yet at the point of mandating masks, it’s not far-fetched, he said: “If we have significant increases, we’ll look at mandating masks.”
Dr. Stack said, narrating a slideshow that displayed a picture of a large group of mask-less young people clustered together on an outdoor patio, said, “We are not powerless,” in the fight against the virus. But,“if we don’t do this, it won’t stay that way. It’s not good in coronavirus land because we spread the virus too easily when we get close like that.”
Exercise social distancing, wash your hands frequently, and wear a mask, he pleaded, calling it “the single most powerful thing you can do.”
“This is really simple, please. Please do it,” he implored. “If we want to stay open, these are the things we have to do.”
There are 408 Kentuckians hospitalized with the virus and 75 in intensive care. At least 3,990 have recovered and 404,781 tests have been administered. Beshear said hospitals are using fewer than 60 percent of their beds, 73 percent of intensive care beds and 27 percent of ventilators.
Since last Wednesday, 189 new residents at long-term care facilities and 100 staff have contracted the virus, and 19 more residents have died, Beshear said.
“Let’s not forget this virus is deadly. It preys on those that have preexisting conditions, and while we have lost some people in their 30s,” he said, “just because the majority may be older doesn’t mean the person that spread it to them isn’t younger.”
KY spending $7.4 million to process unemployment claims
To process the roughly 56,000 unemployment insurance claims outstanding from March, April and May, Beshear said the state will spend $7.4 million of federal CARES Act money to hire 200 workers from Ernst & Young.
The one-month contract, which starts July 1, will triple the number of people processing these claims, affording the state another 200 people to plow through the leftover claims by the end of July.
The people with the oldest claims will be called first, Beshear said. By contracting out this effort, it will “get us caught up and get us caught up quickly.”
Short-term Medicaid coverage extended
Kentucky is expanding the period for any eligible Kentuckian to sign up for Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer funding, or P-EBT from June 30 to the end of August. EBT is a federal food and cash benefit assistance program.
More than 516,000 people have already signed up for the benefit, which provides more than $300 for school children eligible for free or reduced lunches, but the state decided to extend the application period because of a “recent upsurge” of about 100,000 applicants, Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander said.
“We want to give everybody the opportunity to sign up,” he said.
Visit chfs.ky.gov and search “PEBT,” email PEBT.info@ky.gov, or call 1-855-306-8959 for more information.
Friedlander also said anyone enrolled in Presumptive Eligibility Medicaid for short-term coverage that would’ve expired on June 30 is now being extended for three months “unless you contact us and ask us not to extend.”
The state will be contacting people who are eligible for Medicaid, “and those of you who are not eligible for regular Medicaid, we will work with you to see what’s possible,” Friedlander said.
State budget shortfall
The governor said he projects, without additional CARES Act stimulus funding from the federal government, Kentucky will face a budget shortfall of $1.1 billion in 2021, equivalent to a 16 to 29 percent reduction. He again called on the state’s federal delegation to support such a stimulus. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has lately taken a wait-and-see approach, signaling that another round of CARES Act funding may be given to states, but it likely wouldn’t be as much.
“To put that into context, I believe our single biggest annual cut that I’m aware of in our history is 12 percent,” Beshear said.
“This would be like getting Kentucky go bankrupt,” he said, “and further starve the systems that people are relying on.”
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 4:45 PM.
