3,053 new Kentucky COVID-19 cases & 22 deaths. Extra help coming for some unemployed.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 3,053 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Tuesday and 22 deaths, raising the statewide case total to 308,729 and the death toll to 2,944.
The daily tally of new cases represents the fourth-highest Tuesday, Beshear said, and signals a continuation of the state’s post-Christmas surge. Whether the spike is the result of isolated interactions, and if people returned to taking precautions after the holidays remains to be seen.
“We’re trying to determine where these numbers are going,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll see a leveling off.”
The rate of people testing positive is holding steady above 12 percent, at 12.23 percent. There are 1,733 people hospitalized with the novel coronavirus(24 more people than Monday), 397 patients in intensive care (16 more) and 205 on ventilators (two fewer).
The deaths announced Tuesday included seven backlogged deaths in Boyle County. All were men, their ages ranging from 50s to late 80s.
In long-term care facilities, 71 additional residents and 53 staff have tested positive. There are roughly 1,800 active cases among staff and residents in these places, most of whom have yet to receive an immunization, despite being in the first priority group. On Monday, less than a quarter of the total doses the state has received for this population have been administered.
The Trump administration earlier on Tuesday changed course and asked states to begin vaccinating people ages 65 and older sooner rather than later — a population that’s in the third tier of Kentucky’s vaccination plan, along within essential workers and people with certain health issues. The state is still working to finish vaccinating people in its first tier, including staff and residents at long-term care facilities and health care personnel.
Beshear said the federal recommendation doesn’t necessarily change how the state will continue doling out doses in real time, even though wide-scale vaccinations of people 60 and older statewide might not start for at least another month. “Basically all those changes are already in our plan,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Beshear signed an executive order earmarking $48 million in federal CARES Act funding to be paid out in one-time $1,000 checks to roughly 16,500 people who’ve applied and been approved for unemployment assistance, but who have yet to receive their benefits and have been without a job since late October.
This pot of money will also be used to cut one-time $400 checks to about 25,000 people whose unemployment benefits were less than $176 a week, and who who weren’t eligible to receive the extra $400 from the Federal Emergency Management System’s Lost Wages Assistance program over the summer. Beshear announced his intent to sign an executive order to this end at his State of the Commonwealth last week.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 4:22 PM.
