2,946 new Kentucky COVID-19 cases and 15 deaths. Don’t travel, Beshear warns.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 2,946 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 227,818 as more frontline health care workers are being vaccinated.
“Yesterday was the best day I’ve had in nine months,” Beshear said, referencing the arrival of the first coronavirus vaccines in Kentucky. “And today is feels just as good.”
Eleven hospitals in Kentucky will have received the vaccine by Wednesday. On Tuesday, UK Chandler Hospital, St. Elizabeth Edgewood Hospital and Baptist Health in Corbin, Louisville and Madisonville received shipments. All other acute care hospitals in the state will receive vaccines next week, Beshear said.
The Democratic governor said he hopes people in long-term care facilities will start being vaccinated by Monday.
Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the State Department for Public Health, said the state issued a new travel advisory Tuesday discouraging all leisure travel until further notice. He also urged Kentuckians against gathering indoors with those outside their immediate household through the end of the year.
“You know what needs to be done,” Stack said. “You need to stay with your own household all the way through New Years. You need to not have gatherings or parties.”
Beshear also announced 15 new deaths, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 2,239. That includes two more veterans at Thompson Hood Veterans Center, where 33 residents have died. There are no active COVID-19 cases at any of Kentucky’s long-term care facilities for veterans.
There are 2,723 active cases of COVID-19 among residents of long-term care facilities and 1,406 cases among staff. There have been at least 1,571 COVID-19 deaths at long-term care facilities, which accounts for 70 percent of Kentucky’s COVID-19 deaths.
The state’s positivity rate is 8.53 percent, staying relatively steady for the past three days. Beshear noted there has been an uptick in the number of Kentuckians with coronavirus in the hospital to 1,788, with 438 in intensive care and 246 on a ventilator.
Stack said new coronavirus cases in Kentucky have plateaued, which he attributed to the state’s decision to restrict indoor gatherings around Thanksgiving. Beshear met with Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, and said she warned against indoor gatherings and cited concerns over the spread of the virus from people who are asymptomatic.
Anticipating action by the General Assembly in the legislative session that begins January 5, Beshear gave a veiled warning to Republican lawmakers against limiting his ability to impose restrictions to help limit the spread of the virus, pointing to the amount of COVID-19 deaths in South Dakota, where he said there have been few restrictions.
“Not acting now is catastrophic,” Beshear said. “Not having the ability to act now is catastrophic.”
Vaccine distribution
At UK HealthCare, where a shipment of 1,950 doses of vaccine arrived around 10:30 a.m, 88 frontline staff will receive a shot by the day’s end, university officials said in an afternoon news conference. UK plans to vaccinate 258 staff on Wednesday, and another 260 on Thursday.
Like most hospitals, “we are starting with [vaccinating] those that are closest to the COVID-19 patients and going out from there,” UK’s Chief Pharmacist Philip Almeter said.
There are roughly 2,500 staff at UK who have direct contact with coronavirus-positive patients, which means not all will have access to a vaccine in this first round, said Dr. Mark Newman, UK’s vice president for health affairs. It’ll take about a week to administer all 1,950 doses, he said.
Stack asked people not to overwhelm the phones at hospitals and local health departments, needlessly asking to get the vaccine. He called on people to be patient as the state goes through its distribution process.
“This is a time for us to understand that we have a modern medical miracle,” Stack said. “In that context, we now need people to be patient... it is going to take us the next six or more months to methodically move through this.”
Eviction relief fund open
Beshear said the state is still accepting applications for the Kentucky Eviction Relief Fund, but that the money only applies to past-due rent between March and December. He also said bars and restaurants have until the end of December 18 to apply to the state’s $40 milion relief fund for those businesses. It provides up to $10,000 per location.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 4:37 PM.
