Governor Beshear says it’s possible Kentucky is now undergoing a reduction in coronavirus cases. During his briefing Thursday night, the governor said the rate of infection appears to be declining.
State Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack commented on why daily deaths have been higher even with fewer cases reported. “That’s because the people who got sick two weeks ago are now in the most severe part of their illness where they will either recover or unfortunately die as result of the illness, so the deaths will peak later than the disease if we are getting the disease under control and the number of new patients is going down,” said Stack.
Governor Beshear announced 135 new cases and ten deaths last night. Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander said in-home child care programs can open June eighth and center based licensed child care programs a week later. The guidelines include keeping groups of ten children together all day with the same adult, something Friedlander says will limit capacity this summer.
Governor Beshear said he believes his team did everything in its power with the resources available in addressing coronavirus issues in nursing homes. A large percentage of COVID-19 deaths have occurred in long term care facilities. The governor said Kentucky had one of the first visitors’ bans in the country, did widespread testing early on, and full evacuations of floors. “I think we’ll look back on all of this and we’ll see that we had as Kentuckians, as Americans one of the best responses to a pandemic in human history, but with what we learned by the end of it, we’d absolutely go back and make different decisions at different times about what we learned about how the virus spreads,” noted Beshear
While the spread of coronavirus is still under investigation, the governor said being outdoors lessens the risk of transmission, but it’s unclear how much less. This Memorial Day weekend a number of restaurants plan to expand their business outdoors on sidewalks and possibly even some closed off streets.?
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