Governor Beshear is expressing confidence in state reporting of coronavirus positivity rates. The governor reported a positivity rate of 4.7% for Wednesday. John Hopkins has COVID-19 activity levels for all states. It listed Kentucky at 8.4% as of early Wednesday.
The governor said there are websites reporting different positivity rates. Beshear said those organizations tend to use automated search engines to collect data while the state audits the data each week.
“We believe that our data is the only one where we’ve repeatedly gone through and checked for its accuracy. That doesn’t mean that those websites aren’t trying to put together good information that people can look at. We just believe ours is more accurate,” said Beshear.
Beshear said he believes the state remains at a plateau level when it comes to coronavirus cases, but added there could be some creeping up.
Governor Beshear anticipates it to be 2021 before a vaccine for coronavirus is available in the U.S. Several national news organizations are reporting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says be prepared to distribute a vaccine to health care workers and high risk groups as soon as November. The governor doesn’t expect it to happen that quickly. “We don’t expect it to be complete and ensured that it’s safe until probably the beginning of next year. Now that will still be a record. That will still be a true feat of human ingenuity,” said Beshear.
The governor reported 816 cases of COVID-19 and 18 additional deaths, which is one of the higher counts when it comes to the loss of Kentuckians.
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