Small child-care centers in Kentucky will be allowed to reopen June 8, and larger ones with limited capacities June 15, removing much of a major obstacle to getting unemployed Kentuckians back to work in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced several other openings at his Thursday briefing, including a tentative date of June 29 for bars and gatherings of 50 or fewer. Gatherings of 10 or fewer will be allowed starting Friday.
Beshear announced 135 new cases of the coronavirus, tipping further down the two-week trendline that is a key federal metric for reopening state economies. “We may be more than just plateaued,” he said. “We may be in true reduction.”
Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander said the child-care move made Thursday “a day of really good news for many people. … Child care is one of the areas that we know is critical to opening the economy.”
Beshear has allowed people who are receiving unemployment benefits to keep getting them and not return to their jobs if they cannot find child care. He acknowledged that the limits on larger facilities will limit their capacity, but said that until a coronavirus vaccine is developed “our world … has to be based on reduced contacts.”
The child-care centers allowed to open June 8 are those in homes, serving 10 or fewer children, “more in a family style atmosphere,” Friedlander said.
The larger providers opening June 15 will have limited capacity because they must have 10 or fewer children in a room, and those groups must stay together all day, along with staff members. The groups must have staggered play times, and the centers must do temperature and wellness checks on everyone, and have centralized pickup and drop-off points with social distancing.
Friedlander said family events will not be allowed “for now,” and there will be no field trips. Adults at the centers will be required to wear masks, and children under 5 will not be required to do so. “It’s a judgment call, [based] on a child’s developmental ability,” he said. The state’s guidelines say centers “may recommend to the parents of children over 5 that their child wear a mask, and provide information about the benefits of masking.”
The state has continued to pay child-care providers, almost $62 million in the last two months, based on previous payments, to keep them in business, Friedlander said: “We can’t afford to lose them.”
Friedlander also announced additional food benefits for children who will no longer get meals at school this summer, using $163 million in federal relief funds. He said $313.50 per month will go to families on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (once called food stamps), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Medicaid.
He urged people who qualify for the programs, but are not enrolled in them, to apply beginning June 23 at benefind.ky.gov or at 855-306-8959. “Don’t feel like this is selfish, or something you shouldn’t do,” he said, noting that the money will help grocers, farmers and “the rest of the food system.”
Other openings: Beshear announced that auctions will be allowed starting June 1, and horse shows on June 8. On June 29, he plans to allow opening of bars, with social distancing, and gatherings of 50 or fewer people. But he said that isn’t certain.
“It all depends on how good we do at being healthy at work,” his catchphrase for the current phase of reopenings. He said he made the announcement because “We want to give those people dates to see and work toward. It relieves a lot of anxiety.” He said his top priority is to “make healthy-at-work successful; my number-two goal is to get kids back in school this fall.”
Health Commissioner Steven Stack, who said last week that he was worried that Kentuckians don’t appreciate the danger posed by the virus, again alluded to the possibility that reopenings will be delayed or scaled back if cases start going up: “If we take our eye off the ball, we’re gonna find we have the problem in June and July that we have avoided.”
Beshear said gatherings of up to 50 will facilitate weddings, which should still keep “groups of family units” together and practice social distancing. “The six feet’s gonna be really important,” he said. “It’s gonna require some creativity.” He said the five weeks between now and then will allow Kentucky to learn best practices from other states.
Beshear said the 50-or-fewer rule could also provide “an opportunity to do something” with swimming pools. He said he hasn’t allowed them to open because of the likelihood that social-distancing rules would be violated “outside the pool.”
He said June 29 might also provide an opportunity to reopen indoor recreation facilities, which are “taking us a little longer” to figure out, due to capacity questions, differences among facilities, and the number of things that can be touched.
Asked about reopening gyms, he indicated that will take longer. “We can’t go back right now to everything the way we used to do it,” he said. Then he complimented retailers “for being really thoughtful” with their reopenings this week and said he thought restaurants would do likewise when they are allowed to open at one-third capacity plus outside seating on Friday.
And what about more personal activities, such as hug between friends this weekend? “We’re realistic,” he said. “We know that people have missed each other. … Limit your contact as much as you can.”
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.
