532 new Kentucky coronavirus cases and 10 deaths. Total deaths at 719.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 532 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Tuesday, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 28,126.
That number is below the 674 new cases Kentucky recorded a week earlier on July 21. On that day, the three-day average was 637 cases, compared with Tuesday’s three-day average of 457 cases.
While it’s “too early to draw conclusions,” Beshear said, Tuesday’s new cases “at least gives us hope that we may be seeing a plateau or stabilization.”
Ten more people with the virus have died, putting the death toll at 719.
Tuesday’s rate of people testing positive dropped slightly for the first time in the last four days, at 5.08 percent. Again, Beshear said, drawing conclusions at this point is premature. But, “I hope this is us starting to see, because the time period is right, that the facial covering requirement is starting to kick in and help,” he said.
There are currently 584 people hospitalized with the virus, 115 of whom are in intensive care.
In keeping with a nationwide trend, Kentucky’s number of infections among children continues to grow. On Tuesday, 21 new cases were confirmed in kids under the age of 5. Part of this is likely due to more kids getting tested, the governor said.
“I also think, at this point, we have more young children getting the virus than we did before,” he said. “We can’t live under any illusion that kids don’t get the virus.”
The state also continues to report more infections in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and Tuesday was no different. At least 77 more residents and 9 staff were diagnosed with the virus, and nine more residents who tested positive have died.
Bars were closed on Tuesday and indoor restaurant capacity was reduced back down to 25 percent — steps Beshear announced on Monday with hopes of slowing the spread of the virus statewide. These restrictions, which the White House endorses, will last at least two weeks. Kentucky in the last month also mandated people wear facial coverings in public — a 30-day executive order that Beshear said he expects to renew when it expires early next month. He also earlier this month signed an executive order limiting group sizes to 10 or fewer people.
Additionally, the governor has advised people traveling to states with an infection rate higher than 15 percent to either cancel their trip, or quarantine for 14 days when they return. Some of these states are popular summer destinations for Kentuckians, including Florida, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
Beshear repeated his plea on Tuesday for people to avoid visiting these states, many of which continue to set single-day records for new cases. On Tuesday in Florida, where the infection rate is nearly 19 percent, the state also set a single-day record for number of reported COVID-19 deaths.
“That tells you when we have days of high case numbers, this is what follows,” Beshear said. “We are at a point in time where we have the ability to stop this before it gets anywhere close to what we’ve seen in those states.”
Despite these states’ sustained surges, Beshear said he continues to hear about people taking trips to these places, including people in his extended family and social circles. No trip to these states right now is risk-free, he said.
“We don’t get to take breaks from this thing, and we cannot travel [to] these areas,” he said.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 4:31 PM.
