health

Gov. Andy Beshear announced Kentucky’s third-highest daily total of COVID-19 cases on Thursday.

The 1,821 new cases continued a week of near-record daily totals. Cases have surged throughout Kentucky and surrounding states this month.

“This is a type of outbreak where we can’t deny our way out of it,” Beshear said. “We can’t rationalize our way out of it. We can’t try to find excuses for not following the guidance.”

Gov. Andy Beshear announced another near-record high for daily COVID-19 case totals after weeks of cases surging in the state.

Beshear announced 1,864 cases Wednesday, one of the highest totals on record for the day. 

“But for the backlog on a previous Wednesday, this would’ve been the highest Wednesday,” Beshear said. “Which would’ve followed the highest Tuesday, which followed the highest Monday, which followed the highest Sunday, which followed the highest Saturday.”

Kentucky broke yet another COVID-19 record on Tuesday. Gov. Andy Beshear reported 1,786 new cases of COVID-19 — the single highest Tuesday since the pandemic began. Beshear said he expects this week’s cases to surpass last week’s numbers when the commonwealth set a record for cases reported in a single week. 

Beshear announced 18 new deaths, 913 hospitalizations, 233 people in intensive care units, and 115 people on ventilators. The number of people requiring medical care has been increasing along with the rise in positive cases.

“Those numbers aren’t going in the right direction,” Beshear said.

Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients show no sign of slowing down in Tennessee, with a new high almost every day. But so far, the surge has not triggered the state’s plan to launch expanded sites for their care.

The alternative care sites in Nashville and Memphis have gone through “functional exercises” within the last few months to make sure they can launch quickly if needed, according to a Tennessee Department of Health spokesperson. But so far, they have not been ordered to activate.

Nashville’s overflow site was originally the city’s convention center, early in the pandemic when the state thought Middle Tennessee might need an extra thousand beds. The Music City Center was planning to hold 1,600 beds in total. Instead, the Army Corps of Engineers built out 67 beds to handle non-critical COVID patients in an unused floor of Nashville General Hospital.

As Kentucky continues to post record high numbers of coronavirus cases, University of Kentucky HealthCare hospitals revealed plans to accommodate an expected spike of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

UK’s Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington treats COVID-19 patients from the city and some coronavirus patients have been transferred from other Kentucky hospitals. 

Over the last two weeks, the hospitals have seen a sharp increase of 20 to 25 additional COVID-19 patients. Despite the rise, the hospitals have not reached bed capacity.

More than half of Kentucky’s hospital beds are occupied and the state has not yet felt the full impact of last week’s record numbers of COVID-19.

Last week, Kentucky reported more than 9,300 new infections. Cases continued to reach new daily records over the weekend and on Monday, when the state reported 953 cases on a day when reports are ordinarily lower due to lab schedules.   

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear blamed the state’s third surge of COVID-19 on a lack of personal responsibility, fatigue and a “culture war” over the efficacy of masks.

When the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to move forward with President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Senate Democrats boycotted. In their places stood poster-sized photos of people the senators said would lose health care coverage if the court strikes down the Affordable Care Act. 

With just a little more than a week before Election Day and with a challenge to the health care law coming before the high court, health care is on both the ballot and the docket. And for the Ohio Valley — a region with some of the nation’s worst health outcomes — the stakes are high.    

“I mean people would lose their lives as a result of it,” said Ben Chandler, CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group. “I’m personally familiar with a number of people here, right here in Kentucky, who would not be alive today but for the Affordable Care Act.”

Kentucky’s coronavirus case count hit records highs, again, this week.

Gov. Andy Beshear on Sunday announced 1,462 new COVID-19 cases, which brought the weekly total to 9,335 — the highest weekly total since the pandemic began. The highest daily total was recorded on Saturday, and Sunday’s total was the highest ever for a Sunday, which generally bring a dip in confirmed tests.

The three deaths announced on Sunday bring the state’s death toll to 1,407 since the pandemic hit the commonwealth in March. On Sunday, deaths were recorded in Fayette, County, Grayson County, and Spencer County.

Kentucky officials have announced a draft plan for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as first shipments become available later this year or early 2021.

The Kentucky Department for Public Health (KPDH), part of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, submitted an initial, comprehensive plan to the CDC last week. Included in the 49-page report are guidelines for vaccine management, tiering for distribution and logistical support.

“The federal government provided a detailed plan for how states should distribute the vaccine, once all safety trials are completed, and the commonwealth’s plan closely mimics their recommendation,” Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement. “Protecting the health and lives of our Kentucky families remains our top priority as we battle COVID-19 and as vaccines arrive.”

The state of Kentucky has seen another day with more than a thousand new coronavirus cases. From quarantine, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 1,260 more cases of COVID-19 Thursday.

Twenty more people have died. The youngest was a 49-year-old woman in Jefferson County, and the oldest, a 100-year-old woman in Daviess County. The positivity rate also went up to 4.94%, just under the 5% threshold at which heath experts recommend more restrictions. As reported by the Ohio Valley Resource, the true positivity rate may be even higher, because of issues with the data set the state is using.

“This is not moving in the right direction. And it’s up to us to stop these increases in cases,” Beshear said during his briefing.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed Wednesday the state’s highest single-day total of coronavirus cases — 1,346. Beshear says more than 700 Kentuckians are hospitalized due to COVID-19. 

As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increase, Beshear expects deaths will too. 

“So while we still have capacity in our health care system, we are seeing increase in hospitalizations, increase in the ICU, increase on ventilators,” Beshear said. “And sadly, if we continue to have this amount of cases, we will see an increase in deaths.”

Indiana State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box has tested positive for COVID-19.

Box made the announcement during Gov. Eric Holcomb’s coronavirus press briefing Wednesday. Box’s daughter and grandson also tested positive for the disease. While her family members are displaying mild symptoms, Box said she is not symptomatic.

Holcomb and other state government officials will get tested later Wednesday, and hope to have results by morning or midday Thursday.

Tracey Hayes was working as a retail merchandiser in March, arranging products on store shelves around Glasgow to promote sales, when she decided she couldn’t risk exposing her mother to the coronavirus or handle child care for her two children by herself.

Hayes had been watching Gov. Andy Beshear’s daily coronavirus briefings, and she was sure Team Kentucky would have her back.

“I watched him everyday. He said, ‘Healthy at home,’” Hayes said. “So I was healthy at home.”