573 new Kentucky coronavirus cases and 4 deaths. Positive tests still above 5.5%.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 573 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Friday, putting the state’s coronavirus case total at 33,796.
“We are in a place right now where this virus is spreading too much,” the governor said in a written update.
The rate of people testing positive, a seven-day rolling average, is up slightly from Thursday, to 5.57 percent — high enough to suggest “we are still in a very dangerous place where this virus could easily get out of control,” Beshear said.
Additionally, just days after the first case was confirmed, 44 inmates and two staff at the Fayette County Detention Center have now tested positive for the virus, the Lexington Community Division of Corrections announced late Friday. The jail diagnosed its first case of COVID-19 on Monday.
The jail has so far tested 93 inmates — 17 tests were negative and 32 are pending — and 18 staff — five tests were negative and 11 are pending. All positive cases are tied to the same housing unit.
Statewide, four more people with the virus have died, including a 53-year-old man from Pulaski County; a 62-year-old woman from Graves County; a 73-year-old woman from Jefferson County; and a 91-year-old man from Laurel County. The death toll stands at 764.
Friday’s new cases includes 21 kids under the age of 5. At nursing and assisted living homes, seven more residents and 10 staff have tested positive, meaning 365 residents and 213 staff are actively infected.
There are 717 people hospitalized with the coronavirus — a figure that continues to steadily climb — and 136 are in intensive care. At least 684,356 tests have been administered.
Beshear on Monday is expected to allow bars to reopen and set new guidelines for Kentucky’s restaurants, which will be able to expand capacity to 50 percent again next week. The guidelines likely will include setting a 10 p.m. curfew for ordering food and drinks, and limiting how freely patrons can walk around.
The governor also last month asked school districts across Kentucky to wait until at least the third week in August to start in-person classes. On Friday afternoon, the Kentucky Education Association went a step further in recommending all districts start the school year with virtual learning only.
“KEA believes the choice, based on scientific evidence, is clear: Kentucky’s public schools should not open to in-person instruction at this time,” the group said in a statement. “By every objective measure, and without public schools being open at all during the last few months, the coronavirus situation in Kentucky at this moment is far worse than it was in March. If we all believed it wasn’t safe to operate schools then, how can it possible be safe to reopen now?”
The group, representing roughly 42,000 teachers across Kentucky, said in-person instruction shouldn’t resume until the state and each school’s county infection rate fall below 4 percent for 21 consecutive days — “doing anything else is simply irresponsible,” the KEA said.
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 5:12 PM.
