The latest weekly report to states from the White House Coronavirus Task Force contains many recommendations for state and local officials that Kentucky officials have not implemented or even revealed.
For example, it recommends that the state prohibit visitation at long-term-care facilities in most Kentucky counties, those in the red and yellow danger zones as defined by the task force. (Christian County is in the yellow zone.)
It recommends that people with obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure in those counties shelter in place, much as Gov. Andy Beshear ordered Kentuckians to do from late March to early May.
It also recommends that public officials “Ensure that all business retailers and personal services require masks,” something that is not being done in much of the state, if anecdotal reports of limited mask wearing and enforcement in many businesses are indicative.
Beshear has acknowledged the need for better enforcement by businesses, and backup enforcement by health departments. “There’s not been enough enforcement out there; we can admit to that,” he said July 27.
Beshear has gone farther than the recommendations in at least one case, limiting social gatherings to 10 people — something the task force recommended by done only in red zones.
The latest White House report, dated July 26, was sent to state officials. It was obtained and published by The New York Times. Kentucky officials have not responded to requests for a copy of the report; one of Beshear’s emergency pandemic orders gives custodians of public records 10 days to respond to requests for records instead of the usual three.
Here are the recommendations to red and yellow zones in Kentucky in the July 26 report. Most are the same for both zones; this list notes major differences:
Public Messaging
- Wear a mask at all times outside the home and maintain physical distance
- Limit social gatherings to 25 people or fewer (10 in red zones)
- Do not go to bars or nightclubs
- Use takeout, outdoor dining (indoor dining in yellow zones when strict social distancing can be maintained)
- Protect anyone with serious medical conditions at home by social distancing at home and using high levels of personal hygiene (in red zones, handwashing and surface cleaning are emphasized)
- Reduce your public interactions and activities to 50% of your normal activity (25% in red zones)
Public Officials
- Limit gyms to 25% occupancy and close bars until percent positive rates are under 3; create outdoor dining opportunities with pedestrian areas (gyms in red zones should be closed)
- Institute routine weekly testing of all workers in assisted living and long-term care facilities; require masks for all staff and prohibit visitors
- Ensure that all business retailers and personal services require masks and can safely social distance Increase messaging on the risk of serious disease for individuals in all age groups with pre-existing obesity, hypertension and diabetes, and recommend to shelter in place
- Work with local community groups to provide targeted, tailored messaging to communities with high case rates, and increase community-level testing
- Recruit more contact tracers as community outreach workers to ensure all cases are contacted and all positive households are individually tested within 24 hours
- Provide isolation facilities outside of households if positive individuals can’t quarantine successfully
Testing
- Move to community-led neighborhood testing and work with local community groups to increase access to testing (in red zones, increase community-level testing)
- Surge testing and contact-tracing resources to neighborhoods and ZIP codes with highest case rates
- Diagnostic pooling: Laboratories should use pooling of samples to increase testing access and reduce turnaround times to under 12 hours; consider pools of three to five individuals
- Surveillance pooling: For family and cohabiting households, screen entire households in a single test by pooling specimens of all members into single collection device
(Kentucky Health News is an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.)
Al Cross is professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Kentucky. He was the longest-serving political writer for the Louisville Courier Journal (1989-2004) and national president of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2001-02. He joined the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2010. The NKyTribune is the home for his commentary which is also offered to other publications.
