Beshear calls Saturday’s nearly 1,800 new Kentucky coronavirus cases ‘frightening’

The same day Gov. Andy Beshear was excited to be out of quarantine, he later revealed that the state had a “frightening” increase in COVID-19 cases Saturday.

Beshear said Saturday’s 1,738 new cases topped Kentucky’s previous single-day highs by a significant amount. The only exception was in early October when a backlog of 1,472 cases from Fayette County was added to state counts. The governor said he would make new recommendations on Monday to counties with significant spread of the coronavirus.

“This is exploding all over the country. Yesterday was the highest amount of cases ever reported in a single day in the United States,” Beshear said in a news release. “We’ve got to do better, and on Monday, we’ll be talking about new recommendations to counties that are in the red. We’ve got to tamp down these cases. The more cases, the more people that end up in the hospital and the more people die.”

As of 3 p.m. Saturday, Beshear reported eight new deaths attributed to the coronavirus and a positivity rate of 5.63 percent. There have been 1,404 total deaths since the virus arrived in state in March. In Kentucky, 840 people were hospitalized with 208 in intensive care and 107 on ventilators.

“That’s eight additional families who are suffering during this time,” said Beshear. “Do what it takes to protect your neighbor, to protect their life. That’s what we’re fighting for now – life and death.”

Counties with the most positive cases on Saturday were Jefferson, Fayette, Elliott, Shelby and Kenton.

Lexington’s health department reported 85 new cases Saturday, following two days of new infections topping 110.

The Kentucky deaths reported Saturday included a 69-year-old woman from Lee County; a 70-year-old man from Lincoln County; a 71-year-old man from Jessamine County; an 89-year-old man from Jessamine County; an 86-year-old man from Greenup County; an 89-year-old man from Henderson County; a 71-year-old man from Jefferson County and a 79-year-old man from Harlan.

“We’re all tired of COVID-19 and the problems it has brought,” Steven Stack, commissioner of the Department for Public Health. said in the news release. “People are hurting, whether from the virus itself or the impact it has had on the rest of our lives. It’s all worse, though, when we don’t do simple things like wearing masks and socially distancing. As October comes to a close, please be kind to each other and remember that we help each other, and ourselves, when we focus on defeating the virus rather than arguing with each other.”

The bad news followed the announcement earlier Saturday that Beshear and his family were no longer quarantined.

In a social media post, Beshear said he and his family had “tested negative for COVID-19 multiple times, which I contribute to the fact we were wearing masks at the time of contact. Thank you to all who have sent supportive messages. We are very blessed.”

Since being exposed to a member of their security detail who later tested positive, the governor and his family have tested negative four times, the Herald-Leader reported Friday.

Beshear said he and his security guard wore masks while riding in the same car. Beshear was sitting in the passenger seat while his security guard with COVID-19 was driving.

“I was wearing a mask. He was wearing a mask,” he has said. “That shows you that it works.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 10:43 AM.