‘The start of a new escalation.’ Fearing virus surge, Beshear warns of being too ‘casual.’
Kentucky is on its way toward another surge in COVID-19 cases, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday as he announced 456 new cases of the virus, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 66,939.
“We have become more casual in our approach to [COVID-19],” Beshear said in his daily update. As a result, “What we believe we are seeing is the start of a new escalation.”
In three out of the last four weeks, Kentucky has logged a record number of new virus cases reported in a single week, culminating in last week’s record 5,113 new cases.
Beshear said too few Kentuckians wearing masks is partially to blame for the state’s third surge. As schools return to in-person learning and the weather cools, forcing people indoors, Beshear pleaded with people to adopt a sense of urgency. “The virus is here and it waits for us to get casual. We have to do better,” he said. “We have to act with that urgency.”
He announced five more deaths on Monday, putting the death toll at 1,162.
The rate of positive tests, a seven-day rolling average, is 4.41 percent. At least 1,373,577 tests have been administered — 235,272 of which were newly reported last week.
K-12 schools were given the go ahead to return to in-person instruction on Monday. Since Friday, the state Department of Public Health reported 53 new positive cases among students and 38 new cases among staff. Just over 730 students and 337 staff are actively positive.
In colleges and universities, 13 students and one staff member are newly positive since Friday. Overall, 1,415 college students and 47 staff actively have the virus.
In nursing and assisted living homes, a dozen additional residents and 21 staff have reported positive since Friday. In those facilities there are 630 active cases among residents and 450 active cases among staff.
There are 507 people in Kentucky hospitalized with the virus, 106 of whom are in intensive care.
This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 5:03 PM.
