Kentucky coronavirus cases top 40,000. Beshear announces 627 new cases and 12 deaths.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 627 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Tuesday, pushing the state’s total number of cases to 40,299. A dozen people with the virus have also died, increasing the death toll to 830.
Those deaths included a 44-year-old woman in Carter County; a 67-year-old woman in Daviess County, a 67-year-old woman in Letcher County; and an 89-year-old man in Graves County.
The rate of people testing positive is down slightly, to 5.48 percent.
Beshear said the virus “is very real, and none of us should be cavalier.” Of Tuesday’s new cases, 76 are in kids and teenagers age 18 and younger. He called this figure “alarming,” as a handful of school districts have already resumed in-person instruction, despite his request they wait until at least late September.
Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack said the state is coordinating with districts and local health departments to build a mechanism for reporting coronavirus cases in schools. Schools will be expected to report new cases to their area health department before notifying families and the school community. The state will report those cases similar to how nursing and assisted living home positives are reported — a school with at least one case will be identified, as well as the number of staff and students who test positive.
“This is an attempt to be transparent,” Dr. Stack said. “The public needs to be able to know what risk they are or are not taking” when they enter a school.
Though the statewide infection rate hovers in the single digits, at least 20 counties boast an infection rate of 10 percent or higher, according to data aggregated by the White House. Those counties include Jefferson, Warren, Bullitt, Barren, Bell, Knox, Clay, Calloway and Hardin counties.
Schools in some of these districts have plans to reopen this month, which the governor has repeatedly urged against. “You have community spread that is uncontrolled. This thing is so hot right now, we have to understand our limitations,” he said.
More than 40 other counties report an infection rate between 5 and 10 percent, including Fayette, Kenton, Boone, Daviess, Laurel, Rowan, Magoffin, Jessamine, Harlan and Perry counties.
In nursing and assisted living homes, 14 more residents and 11 staff tested positive on Tuesday, and two more residents have died. In child care centers, five more staff and one child contracted the virus.
Since Aug. 11 in Kentucky’s jails and prisons, a dozen more inmates and one additional staff members tested positive, Executive Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown said, edging the total up to 1,010 cases.
Brown also reported the first staff death — a person who had come out of retirement to work part time at the Kentucky State Reformatory. The death toll now stands at 13.
At Tuesday’s daily update in the Capitol, Rocky Adkins, senior adviser to the governor, tearfully divulged that his 84-year-old dad was diagnosed with the coronavirus earlier this month, and he has been hospitalized at UK HealthCare ever since. Adkins’ son, who drove his grandfather to the hospital, also tested positive, though he had no symptoms.
“The cruel thing about this virus is that it separates people instead of bringing them together,” said Adkins, who hasn’t seen his dad in three months.
Adkins said he learned earlier Tuesday that his dad was being discharged to a rehabilitation center.
“Folks, that’s good news that my dad is going to rehab where we’re going to return him home, to take care of that acre garden with tomatoes and corn and green beans that the rest of our family’s taken care of.”
There are 622 people currently hospitalized with the virus, 147 of whom are in intensive care and 88 are on ventilators. At least 770,382 tests have been administered.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 4:51 PM.
