Kentucky hits new COVID-19 record. 1,163 new cases and 7 more deaths
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 1,163 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Wednesday — a single-day record — pushing the state’s case total to 36,945.
“COVID is as hot as a firecracker in Kentucky,” the governor said from the Capitol Rotunda. “Today we’ve set a record that we never wanted to set.”
Wednesday’s new cases include positives that weren’t previously reported because of a data processing error, which is partly to blame for the unprecedentedly high daily increase, the governor said.
Despite the steep increase, the rate of people testing positive, a seven-day rolling average, is down slightly to 5.62 percent. “That is a rate we need to get much lower,” Beshear said.
Seven more people with the virus have died, bringing the death toll to 790.
On Monday, just a few weeks before students and teachers were slated to return to classrooms across Kentucky for the 2020-2021 school year, Beshear asked that they hold off on in-person instruction for six weeks, until late September, to allow time for the infection curve, currently at a peak, to flatten.
But some school administrators have already bucked that guidance, including each of Kentucky’s Catholic bishops who oversee the state’s dioceses and its network of private schools. In a signed letter to the governor, all four bishops said Catholic schools will resume in-person instruction starting next week, though many will offer a virtual learning option.
Of this choice, Beshear said Wednesday, “I don’t agree with their decision. I don’t believe it’s safe.”
He pleaded with any schools ignoring his directive to reconsider, likening sending kids back into the classroom to “sending your kids out at the height of a lightening storm.”
“The idea that we would take this step at a time when we are at our peak is simply not a smart move to make,” he said flatly. Districts choosing to return to in-person classes next week will be some of the earliest in the country to do so, he said, which means they will invariably “make mistakes.”
The governor made it clear he doesn’t plan to mandate the closure of schools unless there’s a widespread outbreak. And he’s hoping the threat of an outbreak is great enough to compel districts to delay in-person start dates without forcing them to with an executive order.
“We don’t want to be the canary in the coal mine,” Beshear said. “I don’t believe that we [should] gamble or experiment with our kids.”
Wednesday’s new cases include 39 kids under the age of 5, and 21 residents and 7 staff at nursing and assisted living homes.
There are currently 683 people hospitalized with the virus, 143 of whom are in intensive care, and 95 are on ventilators.
At least 717,370 tests have been administered.
On Tuesday, Beshear and first lady Britainy Beshear tested negative for COVID-19 after both reported feeling sick with virus symptoms. As a precaution, their children and “everyone working around us” were also tested, all of which came back negative, he said on Wednesday.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 4:15 PM.
