Beshear says childcare centers should prepare to close on short notice due to COVID-19
Gov. Andy Beshear told all childcare centers in Kentucky Saturday that they should prepare to close with as little as 72-hour notice because of coronavirus concerns.
Speaking at a 4 p.m. news conference to update the situation in Kentucky, Beshear called it “another tough step.”
Meanwhile, the YMCA of Central Kentucky in Lexington said Saturday that several of its locations will close at end of business Saturday and transition to provide emergency school-aged child care to support doctors, nurses, technicians and medical staff with caring for their children.
“They will not have to worry that their child is in a safe place as they care for members of our community,” the YMCA said in a release.
It said locations that will be used exclusively for school-aged children of University of Kentucky Health Care and St. Joseph health care workers are C.M. Gatton Beaumont YMCA, Whitaker Family YMCA in Hamburg and North Lexington Family YMCA.
The downtown Lexington High Street YMCA and both Frankfort locations will continue to operate under regular business hours for those who want to continue working out. Operations at those locations include wellness centers, gymnasiums and pools.
All group fitness, senior and aquatic classes and participant programming such as youth sports will remain suspended until further notice.
On Friday, the state Office of Early Childhood advocated that licensed and certified day care programs in Kentucky remain open for now but asked families to keep their children at home if possible.
Beshear changed that policy at his late Saturday afternoon news conference.
“We are doing the best we can and will deal with whatever happens,” said JoAnne Guzman, owner of Creative Kids Child Care in Lexington, which has been in business for more than 20 years.
Beshear has asked public and private schools in Kentucky to stop in-person classes for the next two weeks to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
Asked Friday at his news conference on the virus situation what he plans to do about daycare centers, Beshear said, the state will “provide more guidance on that.”
He said that will be “a real challenge” since he is recommending “for us not to be congregating, people, children, young adults into small areas with significant numbers.”
He said he hopes businesses will provide the flexibility for parents to work remotely as much as possible. “Those are the best situations.”
Several daycare centers contacted Friday said they have been following guidelines in the Kentucky website, kycovid19.ky.gov.
That website contains a page prepared by the federal Centers for Disease Control . Its recommendations include making hand-cleaning supplies available, encouraging students and staff to stay home if sick, monitoring absenteeism, planning for digital and distance learning, staggering staffing or schedules to reduce in-person interaction and preparing to temporarily dismiss or close schools and cancel events.
“We are cleaning everything, teaching good hygiene, basically following the guidelines that have been given us,” said Guzman, whose center has about 25 students.
“So far, so good. Thank God,” she added.
Asked what the center will do if the state says daycare centers should close, Guzman said, “We will cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Amanda Maybrier is director of the Cynthiana Baptist Church Day Care with about 90 children. Harrison County has been the hardest hit area in the state with the coronavirus. As of Friday evening, at least six of the 14 confirmed cases in the Kentucky are from Harrison County. All are linked , according to the Beshear administration. It was announced Friday afternoon by UK HealthCare Dr. Derek Forster that the first Kentucky patient with confirmed COVID-19 that was being treated at UK Chandler has “fully recovered” and was discharged.
“Our children’s center is open and doing all we can. That includes having the children wash their hands extra times throughout the day,” said Maybrier.
Her center is following the guidelines on the state website and spraying everything with soap and a mixture, letting it mostly dry off to kill the virus. “We’ve been doing this for a week.”
“We’ve been seeing some absences because many are children of teachers,” she said.
Harrison County school officials decided last Saturday to close schools this week and let students learn from home.
Daycare centers in Kentucky are licensed by the state. A state website lists 187 in Lexington. Louisville has the most of any Kentucky city with 354. Cynthiana has eight.
This story was originally published March 14, 2020 at 12:31 PM.
