Beshear releases Halloween guidelines. 910 new Kentucky COVID-19 cases and 17 deaths.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 910 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Thursday and 17 additional deaths, bringing the state’s case total to 69,728 and the death toll to 1,191.
The volume of new cases “continues to be higher than any of us would like,” Beshear said, again pleading for Kentuckians to heed the mask mandate and social distancing recommendations. “Please, do the right thing. Do it every day.”
The rate of positive tests, a seven-day average, is at 4.11 percent. At least 1,483,960 tests have been administered since the start of the pandemic.
In nursing and assisted living homes, there are 644 active cases among residents and 436 among staff — 69 of which were newly announced on Thursday.
The state reported 34 additional cases among K-12 students and 23 new faculty positives. Overall, 814 students and 395 staff currently have the virus.
At colleges and universities, 78 new students have tested positive and two new institutions have reported at least one case of the virus. At least 1,589 students currently have the virus.
The state officially reported Lexington’s incidence rate as 28 per 100,000 people on Thursday, categorizing spread as “critical” and putting the county in worst category, the “red zone.”
But the data used by the state to make that designation is likely weeks old, the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department said earlier that day. The local health department said the accurate rate is 22.3, putting it in the “orange zone.”
Beshear, when asked about this discrepancy at his daily update on Thursday, laid blame on the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department, which he said is “one of the slower [departments] in the state” to submit its coronavirus information.
The color-coded zones are intended to help individual districts make quick decisions about holding in-person classes and athletics. But conflicting information at the local and state level makes that difficult. Counties in the orange zone can have in-person learning and sporting events, but the state recommends counties in the red zone to cancel both.
There are 524 people hospitalized with the virus in Kentucky, 129 of whom are in intensive care.
Halloween guidelines
Now that it’s October, Beshear and Dr. Steven Stack, the state’s public health commissioner, asked Kentuckians to adjust their expectations and practices in celebrating Halloween this year.
If children are going to Trick-or-Treat, they should do it with their family unit, not in large groups. For those going door to door, Stack said they should wear masks under their costumes.
Adults, though, should take a hiatus from holiday celebrations until next year. “This is not the year to have all the adult Halloween gatherings,” Stack said. “Let’s keep Halloween for the kids.”
People should avoid hayrides, haunted houses, costume parties and trunk-or-treat events with a lot of people. The state’s safer alternatives includes carving pumpkins for display, hosting a virtual Halloween costume contest or a drive-by costume or car-decorating contest.
Beshear asked participating neighbors to avoid direct contact with Trick-or-Treaters by setting individually wrapped treats out on a table for children to grab themselves. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists this “one-way Trick-or-Treating” as a “moderate risk” activity but Beshear said he thinks Kentuckians can do it safely, as long as they take precautions.
“It is not too much to ask, in a global health pandemic, to put a table out on your porch and stand on the other side of the glass door,” Beshear said.
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 4:50 PM.
