4,324 new Kentucky COVID-19 cases, a one-day record. Vaccines expected Tuesday.
Though he announced 4,324 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Thursday — a single-day record — Gov. Andy Beshear said he continues to see signs that the state’s growth of new infections may be slowing.
“We do have the highest number of cases we’ve ever had today,” he said, but “even with that, we’re tracking about 800 fewer cases than last week. We believe this shock to the system is working,” he said, touting the restrictions he instituted last month, many of which expire Sunday night.
Beshear also said Kentucky could be feeling the impact from people’s activities over the Thanksgiving holiday, though so far, that surge is “a lot less than what we’re seeing in other states.”
Another “leading indicator” that Kentucky’s infection curve may be plateauing, Beshear said, is the rate of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus. For the seventh straight day, that number has dropped, landing Thursday at 9.13 percent.
He also announced 28 additional deaths from the virus, bringing the death toll to 2,146. The state’s total number of cases has reached 213,450.
There are 1,756 people sick enough to be hospitalized with the virus, 442 of whom are in intensive care and 231 are on ventilators.
Business restrictions change Monday
The state’s potential plateau is happening as many businesses are poised to resume activities that have historically driven up the rate of infections. On Sunday night, parts of Beshear’s executive order restricting in-person activities will expire.
That means on Monday, restaurants and bars can reopen their indoor dining at 50 percent capacity, and people can exercise inside of gyms and fitness centers at 33 percent capacity. Patrons will have to wear a mask while they’re exercising unless they’re in a pool, and in bars and restaurants, any time they’re not eating and drinking. Restaurants and bars will still have to stop serving at 11 p.m. and close no later than midnight. Venues, event spaces and theaters can also resume activities at 50 percent capacity.
Though these restrictions will again allow people to gather indoors, “there has to be a renewed commitment to enforcing the mask mandate,” Beshear said.
Other limitations in the executive order won’t expire; Kentuckians are still discouraged from gathering with more than eight people between two households.
‘This group is dying’
As states across the country await emergency approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, Kentucky is coordinating with nursing homes and hospitals, who are at the ready to distribute shipments of the vaccine once they arrive. Beshear said the first doses are expected Tuesday.
Kentucky’s long-term care population, including staff and residents, are at the top of that list. Beshear said his goal is to have the whole of that population vaccinated in two months, on or before March 1.
On Thursday, 239 additional nursing home residents and 130 staff had tested positive, bringing the total number of cases to almost 4,000. Forty-five additional residents have died from the coronavirus.
“This is the reason that we have the vaccination plan we do,” Beshear said. “This group is dying. We have a moral obligation to prioritize them for this vaccine.”
The first several waves of vaccine shipments to Kentucky — close to 150,000 doses are expected before the end of the year — will be dedicated to the state’s most at-risk populations. Nursing home staff and residents will be first, along with select frontline health care workers across the state’s 96 acute care hospitals. Once those populations receive what they need, which will take a few months, teachers and educators will be next.
“Those who can suffer the greatest amount of harm need this first,” Beshear said.
One of his hopes is to inoculate enough teachers across the state “to be able, we hope in this next semester, to have larger and larger and safer capacities within our school buildings.”
Realistically, a coronavirus vaccine will not be available to the majority of people who want one until early summer at the earliest, Beshear and Kentucky’s Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack said.
“This vaccine offers great promise,” Stack said. But widescale distribution “will take time, all the way past the summer, to get to enough people to produce enough protection.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 4:35 PM.
