Governor Beshear is expressing confidence in his decisions about timing when it comes to reopening Kentucky’s economy. During last night’s coronavirus briefing, the governor was asked about a previously announced federal guideline to experience 14 days of declining cases before easing restrictions.
Beshear said being plateaued with cases for three weeks, ramped up testing, and getting federal money to hire contact tracers are all important. But he added the ultimate decision came down to a gradual releasing of restrictions.
“That means we have a lower number of people that are increasing their contacts as we ramp up our testing and as we hope we will stay stable or start declining. And so, it’s the interaction of the gradualness of the phase in along with the testing increase and the tracing,” said Beshear.
Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack calls varied state by state decisions about lifting restrictions a “large social experiment.” During the briefing, Dr. Stack added, quote, “we’ll see what the outcome of that is.” Stack said Kentucky’s gradual release of restrictions recognizes COVID 19 is new to everyone. “I am very grateful that we’re taking a measured approach here in Kentucky because overall in the United States a relatively small percentage of the population has been infected. So, if we lift all these restrictions very quickly, what will happen is the very problem we’ve sacrificed so much to prevent,” explained Stack.
Stack said the next phase of re-opening within health care services provides for the resumption of elective outpatient and ambulatory surgeries and procedures this Wednesday. Governor Beshear said contact tracing workers through local health departments will be available when re-opening of certain businesses begins next week. In time the state will hire hundreds of people to help carry out this follow up tracing of infection.?
Beshear said a government re-opening plan which should include public libraries is coming next. During the briefing he reported 163 new COVID-19 cases and eight deaths.
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