884 new KY COVID-19 cases, 11 deaths. ASL interpreter Virginia Moore fighting cancer.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 884 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky and 11 new deaths, edging the state’s total number of cases up to 77,455. The death toll stands at 1,234.
“We’ve been talking about masks, we’ve been talking about social distancing, and we’ve been talking about how it’s not just about you,” Beshear said in his daily update. “If you are not choosing to wear one, the people it can hurt and the people it can kill could be people who are choosing to do the right thing.”
The rate of positive tests in Kentucky, a seven-day rolling average, is 4.1 percent.
In nursing and assisted living homes across Kentucky, 69 additional residents and 62 staff have tested positive, according to the state Department of Public Health. In Wilmore at the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center, where an outbreak is blooming, the governor said 33 veterans and 10 staff members are currently fighting the virus. Ten of those positive veterans are hospitalized with COVID-19.
Virginia Moore, the American Sign Language interpreter who has been a regular presence since March at Beshear’s daily coronavirus updates, announced by video on Thursday that she has been diagnosed with stage 1 uterine cancer and will need a hysterectomy. Though optimistic and upbeat, she said she will be taking a break from her role as interpreter for the time being.
Moore said it was a “good thing” she learned she had cancer so early. And “it reminds me to tell you all, you need to take care of yourself,” she said, adding, “ladies, please go have a mammogram. Please go have a pap smear.”
With her diagnosis, Moore said, she’s now at a higher risk of complications from COVID-19. “I’ve always worn a mask for you, and I’m going to ask that you wear a mask for me,” she said before ending with, “My heart is Team Kentucky, and I will be back.”
Beshear began his update by slamming 13 members of a militia group in Michigan who were criminally charged Thursday with conspiring to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Witmer. The Kentucky governor said it reminded him of how, in May, he was hung in effigy outside the state Capitol by people who shared similar opinions of wanting to inflict violence on state leaders.
“I think, for awhile, we thought some of these groups could be harmless,” he said. “It’s just people loving to get dressed up and act tough. But this is unacceptable. These groups are not freedom fighters. They are terrorists.”
In response to that foiled plot in Michigan, Witmer implied Thursday afternoon that domestic terrorist groups are emboldened by President Donald Trump, who is “complicit” in their actions because he hasn’t explicitly denounced them.
Beshear seemed to imply a similar sentiment: “If they’re embraced by different leaders, then they’re emboldened and more likely to cause violence,” he said.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 4:39 PM.
