Beshear warns of ‘difficult’ fall and winter if KY doesn’t slow COVID-19 spread
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 543 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Monday, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 73,158. He also announced five additional deaths, putting the death toll at 1,214.
The governor said the daily increase is “higher than normal” for a typical Monday, because “we are in an escalation.”
The rate of people testing positive, a seven-day rolling average, is up to 4.69 percent. At least 1,539,707 tests have been administered.
Beshear’s office on Saturday announced the state’s highest single-day increase of coronavirus cases — 1,275 — capping off a record breaking seven-day stretch that brought 6,126 new cases.
“We cannot have repeats of last week,” said Beshear, who was more pointed in his plea for Kentuckians to take the virus, and precautions against it, more seriously.”
Despite the state’s surge of cases, Beshear only asked people to continue moderating their own behavior, but he didn’t announce any new statewide restrictions to try and tamp down further spread.
“Are we willing to live for other people?” he asked. “Wearing a mask is inconvenient at most. Don’t test [COVID-19]. It can come for anybody.”
If Kentucky’s spread continues at this rate, “it will be a difficult fall and difficult winter, but I believe we have the opportunity to improve our situation” by wearing a mask and socially distancing, he said.
But that’s not a route all state and federal leaders are taking. Earlier on Monday, President Donald Trump, who’s been hospitalized since Friday with COVID-19, announced on Twitter he would be discharged Monday evening. In that tweet, Trump again downplayed the seriousness of the disease, saying, “Don’t be afraid of Covid.”
Beshear rebuked that sentiment Monday afternoon, saying, “no, we need to have a healthy fear of a pandemic that’s killed [1,214] Kentuckians and 200,000-plus Americans.”
If Americans don’t “have a healthy fear of the virus,” he said, “other people pay the price.”
In Kentucky’s K-12 schools since Thursday, 157 additional students and 82 staff have tested positive, according to the state Department of Public Health. The state has counted at least 803 positive cases among school-age students and 406 among staff members.
In colleges and universities across the commonwealth since Thursday, 194 students have tested positive. There are 1,116 active cases among students and 45 active cases among staff.
In nursing and assisted living homes, 156 residents and 117 staff have tested positive since late last week, for a total of 1,224 active cases. Beshear also said there’s a new outbreak at the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore. So far, at least 18 veterans and 9 staff members have tested positive. Five of those infected veterans are hospitalized, he said.
There are 563 people hospitalized with the virus in Kentucky, 145 of whom are in intensive care.
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 4:57 PM.
