(Editor’s Note: The following is a roundup of Kentucky news about the coronavirus compiled for Tuesday, March 31, by Kentucky Health News.)
- It is Kentucky’s worst day of the COVID-19 pandemic: 114 new cases and seven deaths, word of the seventh arriving in the midst of Gov. Andy Beshear’s daily press conference.
- “We knew this was coming, and we know there are gonna be more days where we have more than 114 new cases, and there are probably gonna be days when we have more than six new deaths,” Beshear said. The latest daily projection by the University of Washington is that deaths in Kentucky will peak in mid-May, with 23 deaths a day for several days.
- The seventh death was an 80-year-old in Campbell County, gender unidentified. Beshear said the others were an 88-year-old woman in Fayette County, a 74-year-old man in Bullitt County, and four in Jefferson: women aged 87 and 81, and men 74 and 66. “To my knowledge all these individuals had other factors” than COVID-19, Beshear said. “This is the group that it impacts the most.”
- “Let’s commit we do the things that it takes to make sure we don’t have a lot of days like this,” Beshear said.“Our numbers would be significantly worse if it wasn’t for what we are doing. … “If you’re not going to the grocery store or going to a job, don’t travel anywhere.”
- Health Commissioner Steven Stack said at the press conference, “If you do the things we have already asked you to do, we’re gonna be OK. … If you don’t do these things, there’s a lot of folks who are gonna get hurt.”
- Beshear said in a five-minute interview on CNN that limited data indicate his steps to create social distancing have helped “flatten the curve” of the contagion, reducing the threat to Kentuckians and their health-care system. Shown a graph comparing reported cases in Kentucky and Tennessee, he said, “I believe that how aggressive we’ve been is working.”
- Beshear said “The people of Kentucky have bought in to what we’re asking,” but Louisville officials “continued to address community concerns about reports of large gatherings,” the Courier Journal reports. Police Chief Steve Conrad said in a Facebook Live session that his officers spend a “great deal of time responding to situations where people are gathering” but “We cannot arrest someone for standing too close to another person — nor do we want to do that. … We’re asking for cooperation and in some cases begging for cooperation. But at this point, we do not have the authority to make an arrest in regards to social distancing.”
- Beshear said at his press conference, “Every crowd and gathering is an opportunity for the coronavirus to spread … It’s spreading in just about every crowd and every gathering. … If there’s a crowd at any store, you don’t go in.”
- CNN interviewer John King asked Beshear to comment on President Trump’s comment Monday that he hasn’t heard of any problems with coronavirus testing in weeks. The governor replied, “In Kentucky and everywhere across the country there are critical shortages of PPE and of testing kits. … I don’t want to place blame out there; we’re all fighting for these resources … but we’ve also been open and transparent about the fact that we don’t have enough.”
- Beshear said he is still working on a “proof of concept” drive-up testing facility in Frankfort, but he wants a lab that get results back in 48 hours and a sufficient number of test kits and personal protective equipment, and “Every time we’ve gotten close to making an announcement, one of those pieces hasn’t lined up.”
- Beshear warned Kentuckians to hunker down: “Prioritize your mental health … We’re gonna be in this for at least the next month, and we’re gonna have to be strong to be able to do that.”
- The governor said he is making grocery workers eligible for state-provided child care, and is allowing retired first responders to return to work without effect on their benefits.
- He said county fiscal courts are included in his order for videoconference or telephone meetings, and, “There needs to be away for the public to dial in and listen. … We need to make sure we are not having in-person meetings that draw folks in.”
- Yard sales usually resurge in April, but Beshear said, Yard sales are a way that we would spread this virus really easily … “We can’t have any yard sales until after this is over.”
- Beshear said he is still trying to get a “legacy” unemployment-benefits system capable of handling the huge volume of claims: “I promise you we are gonna get this right,” he said. “We do not think the payments will be delayed because of the new claims coming in.”
- Asked if the school year will end early, he said it is “more than the realm of possibility that there won’t be any more in-person classes in school this year” and superintendents have so planned.
- Told that some churches are planning drive-in services on Easter, Beshear said “Drive-in services are really creative” but need to follow some rules: no more than single family that lives together in a car; cars must be six feet or more apart; no one can get out of the car, and can’t pass things between cars, such as communion items and offering plates. “The last thing we want is for an Easter worship service, which is about rebirth, is to ultimately spread the virus and hurt people.” Indicating that some churches are continuing regular services, he said, “Those actions won’t just spread the virus, they’ll kill people.”
- Asked about Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in the Ashland suburb of Russell, which has announced it will close April 30, Beshear said “We’re gonna use that building, whether or not the hospital system is operating it … I’d like that hospital system to try to hold on.” That is the Bon Secours Health System.
- A family nurse practitioner in Northern Kentucky says she was hit hard by COVID-19 and is sharing her story on social media and with the Lexington Herald-Leader.
- The Cabinet for Health and Family Services has urged health-care providers to use telehealth to keep patients out of their offices and prevent the spread of the virus, John Wright reports for the Murray Ledger & Times. “There’s been a huge shift to telehealth during this time, and I think that’s a very positive thing,” Dr. Robert Hughes of the Murray Primary Care Medical Center told Wright.
- Ford Motor Co. has indefinitely extended the shutdown of all its North American plants, including two in Louisville, affecting 13,400 hourly employees, the Courier Journal reports.
- GE Appliances reopened its plant in Louisville over the protests of employees who said it doesn’t provide for proper social distancing. The president of their union went into quarantine after displaying symptoms and being tested for the virus.
- “University of Louisville researchers are exploring compounds that hold promise as therapeutic agents against the disease and could be grown quickly in host tobacco plants,” Tom Latek reports for Kentucky Today.“A protein in the university’s own proprietary portfolio and other compounds from industry sources may be useful against SARS-CoV-2,” the new coronavirus, Dr. Kenneth Palmer told Latek. “We are currently conducting laboratory research with these compounds that could eventually lead to a therapeutic agent against COVID-19.” Palmer is the director of U of L’s Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases.
- Weddings all over the nation are being canceled, but Cierra and Kyle Best moved their wedding up a month and invited only their closest family members, Robin Cornetet reports for Kentucky Today, which is owned by the Kentucky Baptist Convention. “The marriage is what counts, not the wedding,” said Harold Best, who led his son and daughter-in-law in their vows at Lancaster Baptist Church.
