Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Sunday’s ruling from the 6th Circuit Court Of Appeals and block Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order that closed private religious K-12 schools.

Beshear’s order, meant to curb the surge in coronavirus, bars all K-12 schools, private and public, from holding in-person classes. Danville Christian Academy filed suit and a federal district court judge granted a request for a preliminary injunction preventing the order from impacting private religious schools. Cameron joined the suit on behalf of Danville Christian and private religious schools across the state.

The district court agreed with Danville Christian and Cameron that the order harmed religious freedoms.

Kentucky expects to receive about 115,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in two shipments beginning in December.

The commonwealth recorded more cases of COVID-19 in November than at any other point in the pandemic. Medical experts expect those numbers will climb even higher in the coming weeks due to holiday travel, but it appears fortune has begun to turn in the state’s favor.

Kentucky is set to receive 38,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in its first shipment and another roughly 76,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine later in December, said Gov. Andy Beshear. That’s about three times fewer doses than the state initially expected to get.

A coronavirus vaccine consists of an initial injection, followed by a booster shot. Beshear said boosters should arrive three weeks after the first batch of shots. Together, medical experts have found these vaccines to be more than 90 percent effective.

“It’s a testament to modern medical science,” said Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack.  

Beshear said the first doses of vaccine will go to certain healthcare workers and long-term care facility staff and residents with the goal of reducing deaths. Long-term care residents make up almost two-thirds of COVID-19 deaths and need a higher amount of resources when they are hospitalized.

Private religious K-12 schools will be expected to close Monday, along with public ones, under a ruling from the U.S Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down on Sunday. The panel of judges overturned a lower court decision that blocked Beshear’s executive order from affecting private religious schools.

The appellate court ruling overturns a prior ruling from U.S. District Court judge Gregory Van Tatenhove that had found Beshear’s order impinged on First Amendment rights to religious freedom. Van Tatenhove had sided with Danville Christian Academy and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in their request for a preliminary injunction blocking the order from impacting private religious schools.

In the Sunday ruling, the appellate court disagreed, on the grounds that the order did not specifically target religious schools.

Kentucky is set to receive about $10 million in federal funds from the Great American Outdoors Act and the Land and Water Conservation Fund for improvements on and the expansion of public lands.  

The funds will help pay for a new roof on the Mammoth Cave Hotel. They’ll also be used to acquire a civil war battle site and lands for wildlife conservation and recreation in the Cumberland Plateau and along the Green River. 

“We continue to make progress to deliver on the purpose of this historic conservation legislation,” said said Margaret Everson, Chair of the Great American Outdoors Act Task Force in a press release. “We carefully evaluated each deferred maintenance project and land acquisition to maximize the return on investment for the American people and deliver on the promises of this unprecedented opportunity.”