We are posting the updates from Governor Beshear as a service to our readers, along with the full video of the press conference. The bullets come from the KY Health News site, and the video is straight from YouTube. Today’s summary from KY Health News contains updates from sources other than Beshear; we have moved the Beshear ones to the top of the summary.
Summary Bullets from KY Health News (original post)
Saturday, March 21, 2020
- Gov. Andy Beshear, who has banned all “mass gatherings,” including church services, called on churches to ring their bells at 10 a.m. ET Sunday. “It just reminds us that we’re all here, that our Creator, regardless of your faith, cares about us,” he said at his daily press conference.
- Beshear, asked about a possible “shelter in place” order in Kentucky, said that “is a term that evokes emotions in people that don’t line up to what other states have done,” because it suggests taking cover and securing doors and windows to avoid an active shooter or hazardous materials. “What we will be talking about, and will probably have to take some steps on moving forward, is limiting your interactions among people,” while allowing essential outings and going outdoors “with social distance.” He introduced a new hashtag for social media, #HealthyAtHome, as well as #patriot.
- Beshear said a flea market in Floyd County, which he did not specify, “tried to say their interests should come above others” by staying open. “Don’t be that group.” He urged Kentuckians to “not be the exception that doesn’t honor the sacrifice of others.”
- The governor announced the third death in the state from Covid-19, a 67-year-old Anderson County man who “had a number of other factors that contributed.” The man was among 24 newly reported cases, bringing the state’s total to 87; Beshear noted that the figure will get less precise as more testing sites are established. He said the governor’s mansion will be lit in green, the color of compassion and renewal, to show care.
- Beshear rejected President Trump’s suggestion that masks be sanitized and re-used. re-use of masks: “We don’t think we ought to be reusing those masks,” he said, reflecting the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says masks should be re-used in very limited cases. Asked how he would judge Trump’s performance, Beshear said he was “done with the political side” and just wants the federal government “to work hard to provide what we need, and make sure independent contractors can qualify for unemployment.”
- The Food and Drug Administration announced that it had approved a test for the coronavirus that could produce results in as little as 45 minutes. It was approved for doctors’ offices but will first be used mainly by hospitals, which will start getting them next week, said the test’s manufacturer, Cepheid Inc.
- Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that as testing becomes more available, people should not flood testing centers because each test requires heath-care workers to use personal protective equipment that is in short supply. Here are federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for seeking care.
- A poll taken for The Commonwealth Fund, a national foundation, March 10-15 found that 87 percent of Americans want to get tested for the coronavirus. “Six in 10 said they want to get tested if the test is available, while one in four want to get tested if they think they might have been exposed to the virus,” the fund reports.
- Epidemiologist Larry Brilliant, who helped eliminate smallpox and warned in 2006 of a pandemic like this one, says we can beat it, starting with a lot more testing, he tells Wired magazine.
- Lexington speech pathologist Fatima Warren “wants you to know just how big of a pain it was to persuade doctors to test her despite the fact that she had a persistent fever, tested negative for a whole slew of other illnesses and generally felt like crap,” the Courier Journal reports. It took her nine days to get tested.
- Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana opened a “cough clinic” to look for signs of several illnesses, not just Covid-19. “What we’re trying to do is give people a reassuring place to come to to see if they need further testing or screening or other medical treatment,” Dr. Stephen Besson told the Courier Journal.
- Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order. The chief infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Chicago urged compliance, warning, “The healthy and optimistic among us will doom the vulnerable.”
- Keeping preventive social distance is hard because it is against fundamental human nature, but there are ways to cope, The Washington Post reports. Former Courier Journal cartoonist Nick Anderson has a related take:
- 4-H agents across the state have made more than 3,000 “brown bag kits” for activities that parents can pick up and take home. Counties participating are Garrard, Washington, Casey, Lincoln, Henderson, Madison, Fulton, Knott, Edmonson, Letcher, Jessamine, Wolfe, Carlisle, Pulaski, Hopkins, Crittenden, Bracken, Calloway, Bourbon, Floyd, Washington, Nelson and Rowan. 4-H and Family and Consumer Sciences agents have daily Facebook Live, Instagram stories and Zoom programs, covering topics from art classes to social distancing.
- FCS and horticulture agents and volunteers are gathering materials and providing other volunteers with “kits” that can be sown into federally approved masks for health-care workers, in coordination with Owensboro Health.
- The Cooperative Extension Service has assembled resources for agricultural producers at https://coronavirus.ca.uky.edu/producers. UK’s Center for Economic Development in Kentucky has resources to help small businesses at https://cedik.ca.uky.edu/Covid-19_resources.
- The virus couldn’t have come at a worse time for Kentucky’s Appalachian coalfield, which is suffering economically, has less access to health care, and has one of the nation’s highest concentrations of “health conditions that substantially raise the risks” of developing Covid-19, the Courier Journal reports.
- Amid negotiations on another relief package in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised Kentuckians for their efforts to help each other, highlighting a Louisville woman who created a clearinghouse for volunteers. McConnell’s video is here.
- The Post profiles Fauci, citing his “straight-talking-uncle-from-Brooklyn charisma” and his ability to ingratiate himself with the powerful: “The doctor has been stockpiling capital in Washington for years. His political superpower, say those who’ve worked with him, is his ability to convert whoever happens to be in front of him — a patient, a medical student, a U.S. president — into an acolyte.”
Friday, March 20, 2020
- Gov. Andy Beshear asked school superintendents to extend the suspension of in-person classes another two weeks, to April 20.
- The primary election, already moved from May 19 to June 23, could require mail-in voting, Beshear and Secretary of State Michael Adams said.
- Beshear said the income-tax filing deadline has been extended to July 15, to conform to the federal government’s extension.
- The governor said officials believe 63 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Kentucky, but future reporting won’t be as precise as before because “We have more and more testing labs coming on every day.” Here’s the list; the Lexington Herald-Leader tracks cases.
- Bluegrass Extended Care Medicine in Lexington began drive-through testing for the coronavirus today, the Herald-Leader reports. Test subjects “must either have symptoms (fever, dry cough, chest tightness, trouble breathing) or have been exposed to a Covid-19 patient,” the clinic said on Facebook.
- People who later tested positive for the virus may have exposed dozens of people to it at church services in two counties, the Herald-Leader reports: “In Pulaski County, 40 people are in self-quarantine after potentially being exposed to the coronavirus at a church service last Sunday, local officials said Friday. And in Calloway County, University Church of Christ in Murray advised its congregation, which included around 150 people Sunday, to self-quarantine for the next 10 days, it said in a since-deleted Facebook post.”
- Asked about those cases at his Friday afternoon press conference, Beshear said, apparently with more hope than qualification, “This weekend there are going to be no social gatherings.” (He banned “mass gatherings” Thursday.) He added, “We do believe we have seen a spread in church services and we need to do what it takes. He said churches can do good things to help in the crisis, “just don’t get folks together in a crowd.”
- Asked about a church service planned at a drive-in theater, he said, “I believe this is a creative solution as long as there is that distancing between those cars,” and Health Commissioner Steven Stack agreed. Asked about golf courses, Beshear said people outdoors should stay eight feet apart and golf carts should not be used. The virus lives on surfaces.
- Beshear said two funeral homes, which he did not name, are holding “very large funerals” though “There’s no place in Kentucky where we ought to have crowds,” and “We will have to take more aggressive steps if everybody out there doesn’t conform to this guidance.”
- The governor also urged businesses to comply, saying “It is not about anybody’s bottom line, it is not about party, it is just is Americans against this coronavirus.” He said the state will work over the weekend to create a phone number employees call if they are concerned about their workplaces. “We are trying to take escalating steps to make sure we are reducing contacts,” he said, adding that if businesses don’t comply, “You will force us to take action.”
- Stack said in a video interview with the American Medical Association that Covid-19 will put demands on the health-care system that will “greatly outstrip the resources.” He said the disease is like “a Category 5 hurricane out to sea, about seven to 10 days away, and we know . . . . it’s going to hit, but if we take action now, we can take steps to protect people and to ensure people have what they need to survive the onslaught of the hurricane.”
- He said people who have started applying for unemployment online need to finish their applications by 11:59 p.m. Saturday. Asked how many claims have been filed, he said federal officials had asked him not to give a number, but he said the number was eight times the 1,957 claims last year at this time. That would be 15,656.
- Kentucky’s first case probably came from “someone who had traveled to California around the time the first Covid-19 cases were hitting Los Angeles, then returned home to the Cynthiana area with the virus. The case is one of at least 16 positive tests that Kentucky epidemiologists believe they have tracked back to their origins,” the Courier Journal reports. “Officials now believe that the cluster of nine confirmed cases in the Cynthiana area — seven in Harrison County and two in neighboring Bourbon County — may all be linked to one person’s trip to California. The most recent case in the cluster, a 50-year-old man, was announced Wednesday night.”
- The Northern Kentucky Health Department said it is closing its centers to the public “in an effort to increase social distancing, as well as focus additional resources on Covid-19 response,” it said. Some services “will continue virtually and by phone.”
- Shelby County imposed a curfew on juveniles from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday to Friday and 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, with exceptions for juveniles who are accompanied by a parent, or an adult 21 years or older and authorized by a parent to accompany the juvenile, and for juveniles returning home from work or religious, school or civic activities.
- Rural newspapers need to take special measures to deliver the message of prevention through social distancing and other behavior that presumes “everyone has the virus,” The Rural Blog said in a special message to its readers, especially rural papers.
Videos of 3/20 and 3/21 press conferences
Friday 3/20
https://www.facebook.com/GovAndyBeshear/videos/513775009569484/
Saturday 3/21
https://www.facebook.com/GovAndyBeshear/videos/655457071694806/
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