611 new Kentucky coronavirus cases push the total above 25,000. Seven more deaths.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 611 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky Thursday, bringing the state total above 25,000 during a spike in cases over the past month. He announced seven more deaths, bringing the state’s total to 684.
“That makes today one of the highest days that we have had, though certainly in the last week we have seen all but one of the highest days that we have seen on record,” Beshear said. “The question is, can we stop the escalation from here?”
There are 581 Kentuckians hospitalized with the coronavirus, 135 of whom are in intensive care. Beshear said the state continues to have enough hospital capacity to handle a surge.
He reported at least 7,046 people have recovered from the virus, which he said is an “imperfect number.” Based on numbers from local health departments gathered by the Herald-Leader, at least 17,524 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus, about 10,000 more than the Beshear administration has reported.
There have been COVID-19 cases at 36 childcare facilities, including 31 staff members and 25 children. Beshear said he would not ask public school teachers to go back to the classroom based on where things currently stand. He said he’s considered asking schools that are planning to return to the classroom in early August to delay for a few weeks.
“We can make a decision and then the virus changes and then we’ve got to look at changing our decisions,” Beshear said. “It requires us to be more fluid and flexible than we’ve ever been before.”
Beshear said 21 more children under the age of five tested positive for the virus, but children under 10 made up only 3.28 percent of the overall COVID-19 cases in Kentucky as of Thursday. The age group that has seen the highest number of new cases is people between the ages of 20-29, of whom 4,739 people have tested positive, accounting for 18.86 percent of all cases.
Kentuckians over the age of 80 make up a smaller percentage of cases, but have a death rate of 20.87 percent. Many of those deaths have been in nursing homes, which have accounted for about 66 percent of coronavirus-related deaths.
Beshear announced 20 new cases among nursing home residents Thursday, bringing the total to 2,296, and six among staff, bringing the total to 1,249. He said a fourth nursing home worker had died because of the virus.
Eric Friedlander, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said the state will deploy rapid testing systems to nursing homes so they can test staff members as they come to work in long-term care facilities.
Beshear said the percentage of people who have tested positive for the virus is 4.94. He warned that he may take steps to re-impose more restrictions next week if the numbers don’t stop escalating.
“If we want to get this under control, we eventually want to see that number going down,” Beshear said. “That number going down will actually show that we are lessening the spread.”
Beshear has said the next steps will be closing bars and reducing restaurant dining room capacity to 25 percent, rather than 50 percent.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 4:25 PM.
