While much emphasis in the fight against coronavirus currently focuses on vaccinations, Governor Beshear says it’s important to keep stressing the value of testing.
During his briefing Thursday, the governor said admittedly wintry weather that has included significant power outages is impacting COVID-19 testing.
“We do need to continue to encourage people to get tested. Again, I don’t think previous weeks have been impacted by this, but this week and maybe even moving into next week, probably will be,” said Beshear.
Beshear said there was some drop in testing prior to three winter storms raking across Kentucky, but he doesn’t feel that adversely affected data on cases.
As for education, the governor noted he would like to see in-person instruction at all public schools as an option at some point this academic year. Beshear said the vaccination of those in the education community should be wrapping up by early March.
The legal counsel for Governor Beshear said a certain type of unemployment fraud is at ‘epidemic’ levels across the country. Amy Cubbage said it’s also a big problem in the Commonwealth. During the briefing Cubbage noted 75% of the claims for Kentucky’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program in January were fraudulent. “We are putting new measures in place to try to sort those claims out so we aren’t fully overwhelmed and distracted by those claims so we can work on the claims of actual honest to goodness Kentuckians who need their benefits,” explained Cubbage.
Cubbage said there have been reports of organized crime involvement in this type of unemployment fraud. She added Kentucky has put a stop on out-of-state claims. Governor Beshear reported 963 new cases Thursday along with 37 deaths. The positivity rate inched up to 7.07%
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