518 new Kentucky coronavirus cases and 3 deaths. Rate of positive tests climbing.
Kentucky’s rate of new COVID-19 infections continues to climb, Gov. Andy Beshear said on Wednesday as he announced 518 new cases of the virus, bringing the statewide total to 24,540.
“We are seeing an escalation here in Kentucky,” the governor said in his daily update. “It is just so critical we do the right thing right now to prevent what is happening in other states from happening here.”
The right thing, he said, is for people to wear a mask, stay six feet apart, and wash their hands frequently.
Three more people with the virus have died, including a 49-year-old woman in Simpson County; a 69-year-old woman in Allen County; and an 81-year-old man in Webster County. The virus death toll is 677.
Though delayed, he expects a spike in mortality rates to follow the state’s spike in infections. “Sadly, I think we need to expect that we will see, in the coming weeks, a significant increase,” he said. “More cases times the mortality rate is going to equal more deaths.”
The seven-day average of people who test positive for the virus continues to climb. On Wednesday it was up to 4.92 percent, which Beshear called “a concern” because “it shows it’s not just an increase in testing, it’s more people who are being tested and showing positive results.”
Federal guidelines advise states to consider closing bars and reducing restaurant capacity to 25 percent when the statewide infection rate surpasses 5 percent. Kentucky will heed that advice if cases continue to spike, Beshear said.
“We don’t want to do it, [but] if we have a surge, we can’t not do what all the national health experts . . . have suggested,” he said.
Virus-related hospitalizations are also up: currently 603 people are hospitalized and 145 are in intensive care. At least 7,000 have recovered.
Wednesday’s new cases include 13 children under the age of 5, two of whom are five-months-old. Six new child care centers, for a total of 36, have diagnosed at least one case of the virus. That includes five more staff and three kids. So far, 30 staff and 22 children have contracted the virus.
In nursing homes, which are reliable hotspots, 31 more residents and 22 staff have tested positive, and two more residents have died. Just over 450 nursing home residents have died in the pandemic, accounting for nearly 67 of the state’s coronavirus deaths. A total of 2,276 residents and 1,243 staff have tested positive.
COVID-19 rumors shot down
Addressing circulating misinformation, Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack told Kentuckians that getting tested regularly isn’t a replacement for wearing a mask and social-distancing. If people continue to use it as an excuse to act recklessly, the state’s testing capacity will become overwhelmed, he said.
“We cannot test our way out of poor decision-making,” he said. “You don’t solve infection with a test, you prevent an infection with a mask and social distancing.” If this trend doesn’t change, “we will not be able to keep up with testing, and we’ll run out of materials.”
He also said the state is doing its best to only include deaths directly related to COVID-19 in its official death toll. For example, he said, a person who tests positive for the virus and then dies in a car wreck will not be included in the death count.
At least 560,161 tests have been administered — an increase of nearly 11,000 tests from Tuesday.
Last year’s budget shortfall less severe
Beshear said the state may have a rosier financial picture than expected for the fiscal year that ended June 30, but it looks dire for the current fiscal year without federal assistance.
Preliminary figures show the state budget ended the last fiscal year with no shortfall. It had been estimated in late May that the virus would wreck the budget, producing an expected shortfall of $457 million.
Beshear said state cabinets have cut their budgets and revenues have come in higher than expected. He noted that revenue came in from tax collection filings that were delayed from April 15 to July 15.
As of Wednesday, the state was about $4 million in the red but Beshear said he expects that deficit to disappear when final revenue figures for the year are available next week.
That means no retroactive cuts to education, health, public safety or to the legislative and judicial branches and that higher lottery revenue will produce an extra $15 million for scholarships.
The governor also said the state’s rainy day fund for emergencies will increase 18 percent and he expects no budget reductions in last year’s state road plan.
But he was gloomy about the fiscal year that started July 1.
“It does look to be as dire, or likely as dire as what we believed it would be,” he said.
He said revenues in the last three months have declined 8 percent, “the worst fiscal quarter since the Great Recession” 12 years ago.
The state faces a $1.1 billion shortfall for the current fiscal year without federal assistance, meaning minimum cuts of between 16 to 19 percent.
Without federal assistance, “we will be looking at the largest budget cuts in our history,” Beshear said.
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 4:29 PM.
