Three new Kentucky coronavirus cases confirmed Friday. Total is 14.
Three more Kentuckians have tested positive for novel coronavirus, Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday afternoon.
So far, 14 Kentuckians have now tested positive for COVID-19 in the span of a week. There have been no deaths. Nationally, at least 1,629 people have tested positive for coronavirus in 46 states. Forty-one of those people have died.
One of Kentucky’s new COVID-19 cases is in Montgomery County, about 40 miles east of Lexington. The Montgomery County Department for Public Health said Friday night the people who attended Mass at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Mount Sterling on March 8 may have been exposed to the virus and should monitor themselves for symptoms, though the risk of exposure is considered low.
The health department said the patient is “following quarantine guidelines at home.”
Testing capacity has started to slowly broaden beyond just state public health labs in Frankfort, where one of Friday’s positive cases was processed, Beshear said. The Democratic governor said he couldn’t say what county that patient is from until “some confusion” about the issue is resolved. The Bourbon County Health Department confirmed Saturday morning that this patient is from the county.
The positive test in Montgomery County was conducted by LabCorp, a private diagnostics firm.
The University of Louisville, which has new testing capacity, reported one new COVID-19 case in Louisville.
Of the other cases announced earlier this week, six are from Harrison County, three are from Lexington and two are from Louisville. The six from Harrison County all have linkages, and at least two attend church together, officials have said.
First Kentucky coronavirus patient recovered
News of the latest patients came hours after UK HealthCare officials announced that the state’s first patient with confirmed novel coronavirus had been discharged earlier in the day, having “fully recovered.” The 27-year-old woman, who was employed at the Cynthiana Walmart, was admitted in critical condition to UK Chander Hospital on March 6 when she tested positive.
She is the second COVID-19 patient in Kentucky to be discharged from a hospital after being diagnosed with the virus. The other, a 60-year-old man who was being treated at Norton Brownsboro Hospital in Louisville, was discharged earlier this week and is in isolation at home. The other patients are in stable condition, Beshear has said.
Patients must test negative for coronavirus twice within a 24 hour period before they are declared recovered.
UK HealthCare, the largest hospital system in the state, has a total of 152 isolation beds, where patients with suspected COVID-19 symptoms may be treated. Dr. Mark Newman, executive vice president for health affairs, called this capacity “more than enough ... to meet the need.”
Last weekend, Newman sent an email to UK HealthCare staff notifying them that the hospital system’s supply of personal protective equipment, including face masks, was running “exceedingly low.”
Kim Blanton, director of Infection Prevention & Control and Patient Safety for UK HealthCare, said on Friday those emails were sent “to be sure everybody knew we needed to allocate.”
In part, she said, because, “we were seeing was people stockpiling and taking them home, and I’m not talking just staff. We have people just taking them out of our respiratory etiquette boxes” in “handfuls.”
Close senior centers, Beshear urges
In the latest directive aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 to the state’s most vulnerable, Beshear earlier on Friday asked for the temporary closure of Kentucky’s 195 senior centers to “in-person activities.”
Through those centers, 4,800 meals are provided to seniors on site each day and about 3,200 receive home-delivered meals.
Plans are already in the works at facilities across Kentucky to provide those meals to seniors either at their homes or through pick-up. If need be, Beshear said in his Friday morning Capitol news conference, he plans to use federal funds accessible through his state of public health emergency declaration to ensure “they get [those meals] one way or another.”
Beshear also announced that Kentucky Employers Mutual Insurance will begin providing wage-replacement benefits for first responders and other medical personnel who have been quarantined or told to self-isolate after possible COVID-19 exposure on the job.
“We’re going to make sure that they don’t lose money because of that,” Beshear said.
He also asked for state boards and commissions to revert to teleconference gatherings and cancel all in-person meetings.
“Once again, what we are trying to do is lessen the contacts that people have, to at least slow the spread of coronavirus,” or better yet, he said, lessen the total number of Kentucky’s confirmed cases, Beshear said.
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 5:41 PM.
