New KY coronavirus cases still growing, but rate of increase appears to be slowing
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 2,356 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Tuesday and five deaths as lawmakers worked in Frankfort to limit his executive authority to enact future statewide mask mandates.
“We continue to see more cases than is safe by any means,” he said from the state Capitol.
Between Saturday and Tuesday, 13,005 new cases of the virus and 60 deaths were confirmed across the state, eight of whom were under age 50, the governor said. Though the last two weeks, respectively, brought more coronavirus cases recorded in a seven-day period than any other time in the pandemic — 30,680 last week, alone — the week-over-week escalation was the lowest in almost two months.
“It’s too early to say that it means the increase is slowing down,” Beshear said; while the increase between weeks was smaller, the statewide positivity rate is rising again — a leading indicator of the severity of community spread. On Friday, the positivity rate was 13.17% and by Tuesday it had risen to 13.74%. Still, “if there is a glimmer of hope, the rate of increase [in cases] seems to be slowing,” he said.
Members of the General Assembly convened Tuesday for a special session, which Beshear called for on Saturday to allow lawmakers to rework, and in some cases nullify, some of the governor’s pandemic-related emergency orders. Two of the proposed bills would abolish universal masking requirements in child care, pre-Kindergarten and K-12 settings and bar the governor from enacting another statewide mask mandate.
“All we’re doing here is stating that the statewide mask mandate is null and void, and that all of these orders will be decided upon at a local level,” said House Health and Family Services Committee Chairwoman Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill.
In addition to prohibiting future statewide mask mandates, House Bill 2, which received early approval by committee members Tuesday afternoon, would require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to help support monoclonal antibody treatment centers across the state, each equipped with therapeutic drugs to treat people recently diagnosed with the virus.
If administered early enough, antibody treatment can increase one’s chances of avoiding severe infection. But public health experts warn against relying on this type of treatment as an alternative to vaccination. The best way to protect against a severe coronavirus infection is inoculation.
Masking, and whether to enforce it at a statewide level and in schools, is likely to be the biggest point of contention between Republican lawmakers and the governor’s office during the special session.
“Obviously there is disagreement over masking,” the governor said. Late last month, Beshear said he wanted to reinstitute a statewide mask mandate, but his hands were tied after the Kentucky Supreme Court last month upheld the legislature’s efforts to curb his executive emergency powers.
Particularly in schools, as many school-age children either aren’t vaccinated or aren’t yet eligible to be, “I think universal masking is absolutely necessary if we want our kids in school,” Beshear said, repeating advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If we don’t continue universal masking, we need to know we are ignoring the CDC and claiming we know better,” he said.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 4:43 PM.
