Governor Beshear says there are going to be mistakes made in coronavirus testing, but he adds it’s not a serious concern. The governor said when more than a million tests have been conducted false positives and false negatives will occur.
But, Beshear noted he has confidence in COVID-19 testing. “And there’s always room for human error either on the administration of it or on the lab work on it or possibly on the input of it too. We got to understand these are hard-working humans that are doing their best, but we believe the data, because there’s so much of it, is very very accurate,” said Beshear.
Coming out of a weekend when the governor said labs can be closed on Sunday, Beshear reported 406 new cases and one additional death. He said the positivity rate at 3.7% is encouraging, but added the number of cases over the last few weeks has been higher than he would like to see.?
State health officials are modifying testing schedules and visitation policies for long term care facilities.
Kentucky Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander said county positivity rates will be used now to determine frequency of testing. Friedlander said as long as no new cases have been confirmed in the previous two weeks, visitation can be expanded to more than end-of-life visits. And resident’s pets can come for a visit.
“There’s little to no indication that there’s any transmission that happens there. Very, very, very rare and sometimes those pets, we all know, can really make somebody’s day,” said Friedlander.
Governor Beshear announced the state has applied for three more weeks of Lost Wages Assistance through the federal government.
If you appreciate access to this important content during this global health emergency, please help us continue to provide public service journalism and information to Central and Eastern Kentucky communities. Please make your contribution to WEKU today.
