Coronavirus surging again in Kentucky. 1,054 new cases and 4 deaths Tuesday.
As Kentucky throttles full steam ahead into its third surge of COVID-19, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 1,054 new cases of the virus in Kentucky on Tuesday, though he didn’t announce any new restrictions to help slow the spread.
The governor called Kentucky’s escalation “significant,” and said the state is “on pace” to have another record-breaking week of new coronavirus cases. He implied Kentuckians shouldn’t need more mandates to slow the spread of the virus.
“It’s not about new steps, though we will take them if we want to,” he said in his daily update. “We saw, with the last escalation, that we have the power to stop it if we simply do what works, and that is wearing a mask [and] engaging in social distancing.”
He also announced four more people with the virus have died, putting the death toll at 1,218. Kentucky’s total number of cases is 74,194, and the rate of positive tests, a seven-day average, is at 4.29 percent, though “that’s going to be impacted really quickly if we keep having this many positive tests,” Beshear said.
Beshear said he told local leaders across the state on Tuesday by phone to crack down on people in their own communities behaving recklessly, like gathering in large groups without masks. Local public health departments have the ability to levy fines against businesses or individuals who violate Beshear’s mask mandate, for instance, though the level of enforcement varies across counties.
He also said “we’re going to be stepping up enforcement” at the state level to patrol high-trafficked locations to make sure people and businesses are following the rules. He pointedly asked business owners to refuse their services to anyone who isn’t wearing a mask.
“For our businesses, you cannot check people out who are not wearing a mask,” he said. “Please, we need to take this step so your business is not impacted on a more difficult level.”
To everyone else, Beshear said, “It’s in our hands . . . let’s make sure our hands grab a mask and put it on our face before we go out in public.”
The governor has repeatedly said his plea for Kentuckians to wear a mask is apolitical. To try and prove it, he read from a White House weekly report during his update: “’Masks must be worn indoors in all public settings.’ That’s from the White House,” Beshear said.
The White House report ranks community spread with a color-coded map, based on an incidence rate per 100,000 people and ranging from green to red. According to that report, 22% of counties are in the “red zone,” and 62% of counties have “moderate or high levels of community transmission,” meaning they’re in the red, orange or yellow zones. Kentucky, as a state, is in the red.
Kentucky’s Public Health Commissioner, Dr. Steven Stack, reaffirmed that state and federal guidance; wearing a mask is the best way to protect everyone, he said: “Until we find a way to protect those people from the actions of others, we have to take steps to give everyone a fair shake so they don’t get unwillingly taken down by this.”
In K-12 schools since Monday, the state Department of Public Health counted 40 additional students who’ve contracted the virus and 14 staff, for a total of 1,208 active cases. Fifteen more schools reported having at least one case of the virus.
There are 1,187 positive cases across Kentucky’s colleges and universities, and of those, Beshear said 108 students and two staff were newly positive.
In nursing and assisted living homes, 53 new cases of the virus were detected, bringing the total number of active cases in those facilities to 536. In child care centers, seven new facilities have reported at least one positive case — five staff and five kids.
There are 592 people hospitalized in Kentucky with the virus, 150 of whom are in intensive care — the most since Sept. 9 — and 93 are on ventilators. At least 1,552,667 tests have been administered.
Unemployment woes continue
Roughly 77,000 initial claims filed by Kentuckians for unemployment insurance are still unresolved, Amy Cubbage said Tuesday, and many will not be paid out because applicants aren’t eligible for benefits.
Even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, when federal restrictions on assistance have been loosened, “unfortunately, we can’t pay everyone,” said Cubbage, general counsel for the Kentucky Labor Cabinet.
“If you voluntarily quit your job, you’re not going to qualify for unemployment. Fear of getting [COVID-19] is not enough to qualify. Inability to get a job because of the pandemic is not enough,” she said. “While we would love to be able to pay everyone who needs it, we have to abide by the rules set in place.”
Roughly 1.2 million Kentuckians have filed initial claims this year, and close to 80 percent of those who qualify have been paid out, she said, a sum of more than $4.1 billion
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 5:00 PM.
