Beshear issues travel advisory and limits party size to 10. 258 new KY COVID-19 cases.
As he announced 258 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, Gov. Andy Beshear limited the size of social gatherings to 10 people and recommended a 14-day quarantine for people traveling to other states with substantial outbreaks.
The travel guidelines, which are not a mandate, ask people traveling to states with an infection rate of 15 percent or higher to quarantine for two weeks when they return home. Those states include Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Arizona,Texas, Nevada and Mississippi.
“These are absolutely hot spots that right now are just dangerous, and they are seriously and significantly impacting our numbers,” the governor said, calling the spread of the virus in these areas “uncontrolled.”
Beshear, similarly, cited travel and backyard barbecues as major drivers of Kentucky’s rising infection rate, both of which have been responsible for several clusters. So, by way of executive order, he capped group sizes to 10. Kentuckians were otherwise able to gather in groups as big as 50 people.
“We’re seeing clusters created by our backyard barbecues and by our block parties,” Beshear said. Limiting those group sizes to 10 “is much more manageable.”
The new size limit does not apply to businesses, such as wedding venues, which are regulated by the state’s Healthy at Work rules.
These steps to restrict some social activities come on the coattails of a record single-day increase in new cases on Sunday, when 979 infections were confirmed — a substantial increase that Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack called a “shot across the bow.”
These restrictions are necessary, since Kentucky is securely in its “accelerating phase” of new cases, Stack said. “If we don’t take some strong action, people will see just how bad it can get in Kentucky.”
Monday’s new cases brings the statewide case total to 23,414. As is often the case, Monday’s new numbers tend to be artificially low because of lab closures on Sunday. Beshear said he expects the new number of cases to be “much higher” by the middle of the week.
If the state’s infection curve doesn’t plateau soon, it will likely lead to business closures, the governor said. “If we continue to see an increase of cases, we’ll have to look at capacity limits everywhere.”
If the curve doesn’t flatten out in the coming weeks, it could also mean a delayed reopening of schools to in-person classes, he said.
There are currently 542 people hospitalized with the virus and 114 in intensive care. At least 6,876 have recovered and at least 533,143 tests have been administered.
Beshear announced one new death on Monday — a 94-year-old woman from Casey County.
Over the last several months, restrictions Beshear implemented — most of which are not still in place — have angered some across the state. The governor was hung in effigy in late May on the lawn of the state Capitol during the same rally where protesters frustrated with his closure of businesses crowded on the porch of the Governor’s Mansion and shouted for Beshear to come outside.
Beshear recalled that event on Monday, saying he had expected that to be one of the low points during his tenure as governor, until a few weeks ago, when someone “covertly” started taking pictures of his son, Will, who’s 11, at his baseball games and posting them online.
“That’s something you should never do, no matter what, no matter who’s the parent of that kid,” he said, tearing up. “He doesn’t deserve that. He doesn’t deserve any of this.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 4:55 PM.
