A new executive order from Gov. Andy Beshear, issued Monday, will allow bars to reopen at 50% capacity and restaurants to increase their capacity from 25% to 50%.
There are restrictions, though. Bar and restaurant customers will have to remain in their seats except when they enter and leave, or go to the restroom, said Beshear’s chief of staff, La Tasha Buckner. Customers also must wear a mask when they are not “actively eating or drinking,” she said.
Bars and restaurants will have to stop service by 10 p.m. and close by 11 p.m. The executive order is effective Tuesday, Aug. 11.
The state reported 275 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and two deaths attributed to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Beshear announced. A problem with the state’s data processor has delayed some reporting, the governor said, so Monday’s report could have been lower than the actual numbers.
“Today’s number needs to have a giant asterisk on it, because we know that number is higher and will change,” Beshear said in a press release.
The new cases included 13 children ages 5 and younger. Of those, five are younger than 1 year old.
As of Monday, at least 35,254 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Kentucky.
The deaths reported Monday were a 60-year-old woman from Graves County and a 98-year-old woman from Lincoln County.
(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
