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In response to an escalation in the number of coronavirus cases, Governor Andy Beshear and his health commissioner stepped up their pleas for Kentuckians to stop him.
“If current trends continue, it will be a difficult fall and a difficult winter, but I think we have an opportunity to improve our situation,” Beshear said in his daily briefing on Monday. “One of the best ways we do it is to wear a mask.”
He also mixed the practical with the philosophical: “Now is our test, a test of values, a test of faith. Are we willing to live for other people? Wearing a mask is inconvenient at best. Are we willing to accept inconveniences to protect life, protect our economy, and get our children to go to school? That is our choice.
“Or are we willing to say that we shouldn’t have to go through any inconvenience and because we don’t see people suffering from covid because they are at home or in the hospital? that we are not going to respond adequately? ”
Beshear announced 543 new cases of the coronavirus, a high level for a Monday, reflecting less laboratory activity on weekends. That brought the seven-day average of unadjusted cases per day to 915, a record. The average for the week ending Sunday, after removing duplicate results, was 875.
Kentucky has seen a weekly increase in cases since Sept. 7, with a big jump last week to 6,126, the highest weekly case count yet, up from 4,949 the previous week.
“Clearly we are now on an escalation, there is no question about it,” said Health Commissioner Steven Stack.
“This is scary,” he said, because unlike the April peak that the state was able to flatten, this one is starting so high that it could increase rapidly, as happened in New York, Florida, Arizona and Texas.
“I think one of the tragedies that influences this is that it is something that, theoretically at least, is under our control, if we choose different behaviors,” said Stack, a physician.
Beshear was asked several times what he planned to do with the climb. He said he was stepping up the enforcement of his mask mandate and will ask the county mayors and executive judges to help him enforce it, but suggested that their help could be as spotty as the fulfillment of the mandate: “After seeing this escalation, I hope you’re on board too. ”
The governor said that all government officials must do something if they see someone who does not follow the rules, and companies must refuse service to people who violate the mandate of the mask: “We need to make sure that everyone who is there outside return to the place where you are in your business you cannot watch someone if they do not wear a mask; It shouldn’t matter who they are. “
He added: “If it is in our power to achieve better grip, we will do it.” He asked local health departments to fine bars and restaurants if they don’t follow the 50% capacity rules, rather than simply educating them on the rules and the reasons for it. He also noted that the state Labor Cabinet and Alcoholic Beverage Control agents could help enforce the rules.
He added that if the escalation continues, the White House Coronavirus Task Force will make new recommendations that it will seriously consider. The task force’s weekly report, which is generally released on Mondays, was still pending at 10 p.m.
The health department map, tagged again by Kentucky Health News Stack, said the state’s incidence rate map, showing infections in the past seven days, “is as ugly as it looks” and will get much worse if the trend keep going. The Oct. 5 map shows 21 counties in red, which means they have at least 25 cases per 100,000 residents.
He then showed a graph comparing coronavirus cases and deaths in the US with Canada, Germany and New Zealand. They showed that the United States has 22,000 cases per million people, compared to about 4,000 in Canada and Germany and almost none in isolated New Zealand. The death rate in the United States is three and a half times higher than that of Canada, six and a half times higher than that of Germany and 650 times worse than that of New Zealand, the most isolated urbanized democracy in the world.
“Other democracies have realized this,” Stack said. “Tragically, the United States of America has not. Our nation, by its wonderful attributes, unfortunately, is a spectacular failure in this regard. Our results for managing this disease are really embarrassing, frankly. And we should feel humiliated as a country for not having been able to unite better to do this well. ”
Stack pointed to a recently released study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that a 13-year-old boy was the source of a coronavirus outbreak at a three-week family gathering, infecting 11 of the 14 people who attended. , but six people who attended. for a short time, while practicing social distancing outside and wearing a mask while inside, they were not infected.
He said it resembled the current situation in the White House, where President Trump’s rose garden event to introduce his Supreme Court nominee appears to have been a source of infection, perhaps even from Trump.
Beshear was asked if he approved of how Trump had managed his illness, said it was good that he had made his diagnosis public and sought medical attention, but that he should not have violated the quarantine needs to wear a mask.
“I have been pleading for months that this president wear a mask in public. I really hope we see that now every day, all the time, when he’s not talking and he can put it on and take it off, “Beshear said, adding that a lot of people who don’t wear masks” will start if the president will, and that’s one way. to protect a lot of people. ”
When asked about Trump’s tweet that said: “Don’t be afraid of covid. Don’t let it rule your life, ”Beshear said, the second point is correct, but“ We must have a healthy fear of a pandemic that has killed 1,200 Kentucky residents. . . If we don’t, other people pay the price. “
Beshear announced five more deaths from Covid-19, bringing the death toll in the state to 1,214: a 69-year-old man from Boyd County; an 85-year-old man and two women, 91 and 99, from Daviess County; and a 71-year-old man from Robertson, the smallest county in the state.
The proportion of Kentuckians who tested positive for the virus in the past seven days is 4.68%
In other COVID-19 news Monday:
- Of Monday’s cases, 69 were 18 years old or younger, and nine of them were 5 years old or younger, the press release from Beshear’s office said.
- The daily state report says 563 people are hospitalized with covid-19 in Kentucky and 145 of them are in intensive care.
- Beshear said 156 more residents and 117 more employees at long-term care facilities have tested positive since his last update on them, and that 22 more resident deaths can be attributed to COVID-19. She said one reason for more staffing cases is an increase in staff testing, as required by the federal government. There are 762 cases of active residents and 462 cases of active staff at the facility, and there have been 704 resident deaths and five staff deaths from COVID-19.
- Beshear announced an outbreak at the Thompson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore. She said that at least 18 veterans and nine staff members tested positive for the virus and that five of those infected are hospitalized.
- The K-12 schools state report shows 803 cases of active students and 406 cases of active staff. Since last Thursday, Beshear reported, 157 more students and 82 staff members have tested positive.
- At colleges and universities, Beshear reported that 194 more students tested positive since Thursday. The daily report shows 1,116 active student cases and 45 active staff cases.
- More states have been added to Kentucky’s travel warning because they have a positivity rate greater than 15% or higher. These include Mississippi, South Dakota, Idaho, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Wyoming, and Florida. Florida, at 11.08%, was also added last week because it does not have a statewide mask mandate and has allowed bars and restaurants to fully reopen and is a beach destination for many Kentucky families during the autumn holidays.
- Kentucky residents traveling to these states are required to isolate themselves for two weeks upon return. “For God’s sake, don’t go to the beach during fall break when you want your kids to go to school,” Beshear said. “We have already seen people die from other people’s trips to the beach. Don’t be that person. “
- Stack asked Kentucky residents to answer two questions and mail their responses only to Dr. Steven Stack, Commissioner of Public Health, Kentucky State Capitol, Frankfort KY 40601. The questions are: “Why am I concerned? COVID-19? Why am I worried about my colleagues in Kentucky? “
(Kentucky Health News is an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Affairs, based at the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.)
