Beshear closes Kentucky bars and limits indoor restaurant capacity for two weeks
Gov. Andy Beshear announced Monday that Kentucky bars must close and restaurants will have to reduce their indoor capacity to 25 percent.
The order, which comes around a month after bars were allowed to open and restaurant capacity was allowed to increase to 50 percent, goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and will last for two weeks.
“This is going to hurt a lot of restaurants,” Beshear said. “But the White House’s modeling shows this is absolutely necessary to control the spread.”
He dismissed the idea of increasing restrictions only in counties that are hardest hit, noting that 74 of Kentucky’s 120 counties are either listed as red or yellow by the White House as coronavirus cases spread.
Beshear said the administration will enforce “seat rules” for bars that serve food. Everyone who comes in must have a seat and must stay in that seat unless they’re going to the bathroom. Restaurants can have unlimited outdoor seating, so long as it complies with social distancing orders. He said he is hopeful that restaurants will be able to get back up to 50 percent after two weeks.
The order comes as the extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits from the federal government has expired. Congress is still negotiating whether they should extend the benefits. There are currently around 68,000 unresolved unemployment claims in Kentucky.
He also recommended that public and private schools in Kentucky wait until at least the third week of August to start in-person instruction.
“The line and the trend is undeniable,” Beshear said. “This virus is now escalating and spreading so much statewide that statewide action is necessary.”
Beshear made the order after a month of increased spread of COVID-19 throughout Kentucky. The 11,977 COVID-19 cases so far in July is nearly double the number of cases in June, even though the number of tests completed is similar. There were 169,495 people tested in June and 184,145 people have been tested so far in July.
On Monday, he announced 522 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of cases in Kentucky to 27,601. He also announced nine new deaths, bringing the state’s total to 709. There are 609 people in the hospital with the virus, 131 of whom are in intensive care.
Earlier this month, Beshear signed an executive order requiring people to wear masks in public and limited private gatherings to 10 or fewer people. On Monday, he said he plans to extend the mask mandate when it expires later this month.
Beshear also said people need to make sure they don’t have more than 10 people over at their house, saying house parties have become a problem.
“We’ve really got to control house parties,” Beshear said. “Folks, if you have more than 10 people over right now, you’re exposing yourself and your family to the coronavirus.”
The state’s positivity rate — the number of people testing positive divided by the total number of people being tested — has continued to climb for three weeks and is now at 5.58 percent.
On Sunday, Beshear met with Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Birx said Sunday that in those meetings she urged Beshear to close bars and limit restaurants. She said Kentucky was following the trend of other southern states, where younger people caught the virus and continued to spread it through the population. Around 19 percent of Kentucky’s COVID-19 cases are in people in their 20s.
Beshear showed pictures of downtown Lexington from Saturday night, when crowds of unmasked people gatherd at many downtown bars. He placed blame on both the people running the bars and the people who were choosing to patronize them.
The virus has continued to take a toll on nursing homes. Beshear said Monday that 2,330 nursing home residents have tested positive for the virus, an increase of 30, and 1,302 staff members have tested positive, an increase of 35. There have been at least 465 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, which make up 65.5 percent of the state’s total number of coronavirus-related deaths.
Cases have also spread in childcare centers, a concern as some public schools prepare to open doors to in-person classes. Beshear said 44 childcare facilities have found cases of the virus, with a total of 38 staff members and 31 children testing positive for the virus.
Beshear said the state had a General Fund budget surplus of $177.5 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, despite projections that COVID-19 could cause a massive budget deficit. The surplus will save public schools, universities and other branches of government from having to make cuts. Beshear said he will deposit most of the money in the state’s rainy day fund.
“This is a better outcome than I could have ever anticipated,” Beshear said. “This is a positive outcome for the people of Kentucky.”
Herald-Leader reporter Alex Acquisto contributed to this article.
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 4:15 PM.
