Kentucky reports 413 new COVID-19 cases as total passes 21,000; five new deaths
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 413 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, edging the state’s total number of cases to 21,083. Five more people with the virus have died, putting the death toll at 650.
“What we are seeing across the country is alarming. We are seeing state after state not just facing escalating cases, but facing devastation,” Beshear said. “There’s nothing that means that we can’t end up like any of those states if we don’t do the right thing.”
Part of doing the right thing involves individual Kentuckians heeding the state mandate and wearing masks in public places, as well as allowing the state to continue to enforce guidelines and regulations to limit the spread of the contagious virus — an ability that is currently under threat by state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the governor said.
Beshear was visibly angry at Cameron, who filed a motion in Boone County Circuit Court on Wednesday to overturn all of the orders the governor has instituted since March to protect against the spread of COVID-19, and to block Beshear from issuing or enforcing any future orders.
In his news conference in the Capitol rotunda Thursday afternoon, Beshear called Cameron’s sweeping motion “possibly the gravest threat that I’ve seen since we started this.”
“It is truly frightening,” Beshear said of the motion, which would “remove the authority that virtually every other governor is using to battle this virus, and it would result in a spike.” Revoking those protocols means “we would fail and it means people would die,” he said.
The virus “continues to prey” on those in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, where 51 more residents and 47 staff have tested positive, and three residents have died, he said. Seven more of these residences have diagnosed cases of the virus, meaning at least 224 facilities across Kentucky have at least one confirmed case.
Infections among children aren’t waning either. On Thursday, 13 more kids under the age of 5 tested positive.
At least 502,197 tests have been administered, and the infection rate is up to 4.38 percent, roughly 2 percent higher than in late June. “Once it gets to 5 percent, it’s of real concern,” Beshear said.
He noted that many testing sites around Kentucky are completely booked with appointments, including “just about every testing site in Jefferson County” that the state helps operate. The governor’s office is working to provide more kits “to our major localities to make sure that we can get more people in and tested,” he said.
Outstanding unemployment claims still being processed
There are still 5,060 remaining unemployment insurance claims left to process that were filed in March, Beshear said, but the firm hired to help push those through the system is making headway.
The state, with the help of Ernst & Young, whose services the state contracted for $7.4 million through the end of July, continues to process those outstanding claims from March. Since July 1, the firm has processed 10,635 claims, and anticipates processing another 4,000 claims each work day, which runs from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday, Beshear said.
Many of these claims are processed over the phone. The governor asked Kentuckians whose claims have gone unprocessed to pick up when they’re called. Currently people are answering about half the time. “Please answer the phone,” he said.
This story will be updated.
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 4:40 PM.
