KY sees 531 new COVID-19 cases. Beshear ‘relieved’ that Supreme Court kept his orders in place.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 531 cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Friday, edging the total number of cases up to 21,605. Eight more people with the virus have died, putting the death toll at 653.
Friday’s number of cases is the “third highest number of positive [COVID-19] cases that we’ve ever had,” the governor said before reiterating the need for Kentuckians to wear masks in public. Beshear’s executive order mandating that facial coverings be worn in virtually public-facing businesses went into effect a week ago and remains in effect for at least 30 days.
But enforcement of that order and all other orders and regulations Beshear has instituted since early March to slow the spread of the virus had been up in the air until late Friday afternoon.
A Boone County Circuit Court judge earlier in the day was poised to sign an order in keeping with a motion filed Wednesday by state Attorney General Daniel Cameron asking that each of Beshear’s past novel coronavirus-related orders be voided and the governor be barred from enforcing new orders. Cameron, in a tweet, said he was trying to “protect the rights of Kentuckians” and “ensure” that the executive order power wielded by Beshear “complies with the law.”
But in an eleventh hour decision late Friday afternoon, the Kentucky Supreme Court temporarily blocked that forthcoming lower court ruling until the high court had a chance to fully review it.
“Given the need for a clear and consistent statewide public health policy and recognizing that the Kentucky legislature has expressly given the governor broad executive powers in a public health emergency, the Court orders a stay of all orders of injunctive relief,” Chief Justice John Minton wrote in the decision supported by all justices.
“The Boone and Scott Circuit Courts may proceed with matters before them and issue all findings of face and conclusions of law they find appropriate,” Minton wrote, “but no order, however characterized, shall be effective.”
Beshear Friday afternoon in the Capitol rotunda said he felt “relieved” by the high court’s decision.
“There is no question that without any [executive orders and regulations] that two weeks from now, we would’ve seen a major proliferation of cases, and we know more cases means more death,” Beshear said, adding that voiding his orders would’ve been like removing the “ammunition from our troops and [saying], ‘Good luck with the enemy.’”
There are 452 people currently hospitalized with the virus and 89 in intensive care. At least 6,772 have recovered.
Ten more children under the age of 5 have tested positive for the virus, including three kids younger than 1 year old, Beshear said.
The virus continues to spread in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, where, since Thursday, 25 more residents and 17 staff have tested positive, and another resident has died. Likewise in child care centers, two additional staff and two more kids have tested positive. At least 23 child care centers are now connected to at least one positive case of COVID-19.
At least 522,267 tests have been administered, and the current statewide rate of people testing positive is 4.2 percent. The federal government recommends that states consider “rolling back some reopenings” once infection rates surpass 5 percent, Beshear said.
This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 4:35 PM.
