3,179 new Kentucky COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths. Beshear finalizes school guidance.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 3,179 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Friday and 28 additional deaths, less than a week after health care workers around the state began receiving coronavirus immunizations.
Beshear again cautioned against unsafe indoor gatherings over the holidays next week. “I know we all want to celebrate the way we usually do, but this year we need to do things differently,” he said in a written statement. “With vaccines arriving this week, we can see the bright light at the end of the tunnel,” he added, asking people to continue “doing their part to protect one another.”
The state’s case total now stands at 237,190, and the death toll has reached 2,344. Friday’s deaths included Kentuckians in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
The seven-day average rate of Kentuckians testing positive was up slightly Friday to 8.59 percent. Across the state there are at least 1,712 people hospitalized with the virus, including 410 in intensive care and 227 on a ventilator.
Eleven regional hospitals across Kentucky began administering first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine this week to frontline health care workers. That process is supposed to begin on Monday in select nursing homes around the state, where the virus continues to spread. On Friday, another 149 long-term care residents and 109 staff had tested positive, bringing the total number of active cases to 3,770.
On Thursday, 73 more students in grades K-12 had tested positive along with 44 staff, according to the state’s coronavirus dashboard. Ninety-six students and 37 staff had been recently exposed and are in quarantine. Last week, 1,334 students and staff tested positive, and a total of close to 1,200 students and 694 staff were quarantined.
All Kentucky schools have been closed to in-person learning since late November.
Earlier on Friday, Beshear signed an executive order codifying school-related measures he said he would take earlier in the week, including recommending that no Kentucky school in a “red zone” county resume in-person classes before Jan. 11 — a week later than he initially recommended. By week’s end, all but three of Kentucky’s 120 counties were red.
The reason for the further delay, he said, is to add a a bigger window of time between when students and teachers would potentially contract the coronavirus over Christmas and other December holidays, and when they would return to an indoor setting with others. Jan. 4 is 10 days after Christmas, which is technically still in the two-week quarantine window when most people develop infections.
The executive order also formalizes that schools must provide virtual options commensurate with the curriculum being taught in person. School districts in red or orange counties must also accommodate high risk teachers who request to teach virtually. The definition of high risk includes anyone who has diabetes, kidney disease, as well as anyone older than 65, or anyone over 55 with hypertension, heart or respiratory disease.
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 5:30 PM.
