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)
- The state identified nine more COVID-19 cases, its biggest daily spike, and Gov. Andy Beshear suggested they’ll get bigger: “We’re gonna see new cases every day . . . and probably in a rapid fashion,” he said at a press conference in which he twice interjected notice of newly reported cases. The new total is 35, after about 500 tests.
- The new cases included the oldest and youngest yet in Kentucky: an 88-year-old woman in Bourbon County and an eight-month old in Jefferson County, who is being treated at home. “It is very rare” for minors to get the disease, Beshear said.
- Dr. Sean McTigue, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist and UK HealthCare’s medical director for pediatric infection prevention and control, said in a news release that children should be told that the risk to them is very low: “In the largest study of covid-19 patients, only 2 percent of all identified infections were in children, and the vast majority of these were asymptomatic or very mild. To date, there have been no deaths reported worldwide in children.”
- A Montgomery County patient who tested positive is out of the hospital and reportedly fully recovered. “These are stores we need to tell,” Behsear said, “because for 80 percent pf people who get this, you’ll be just fine.” The Lexington Herald Leader has a case tracker.
- Beshear shut down charitable gaming: “We can’t have bingo halls where often times the most vulnerable come together.”
- The state will extend certification for public assistance for three months and allow the unemployed to apply immediately for Medicaid. Health Secretary Eric Friedlander recommended signing up for Medicaid first, at 855-459-6328 or a website that lists local assisters; for SNAP (formerly food stamps) and other programs, call 855-306-8959. He said public-assistance offices are closed to in-person traffic but documents can be dropped off.
- Beshear said unemployment offices’ computer servers and phone lines are operating, and noted that applicants should apply on certain days, depending on the first letter of their last name.
- Beshear said banks and other financial institutions will reduce hours and lobby access but are sound. “There is no need to make a run on them,” he said, adding “Paper money allows for a bigger spread” of the virus. He said banks would accept loan applications online or by phone, and encourage customers to performs transactions electronically. Central Bank in Lexington said it would extend loan-repayment periods without penalty.
- Asked why he hasn’t limited grocery purchases, Beshear said, “Our institutions are working on that right now . . . There are going to be some limits on essential items.”
- Beshear and Health Commissioner Steven Stack talked, respectively, about the need for medical facilities to stop elective surgeries and for all Kentuckians to follow other recommendations. “If it’s not followed, if there’s not substantial compliance, it’s gonna be a mandate,” Beshear told the medical industry. “I can’t tell you how many groups out there have tried to say ‘It’s not me’.” Stack said he was surprised at the number of requests for exemptions to other guidance: “Stop looking for excuses why your community is different from other communities.”
- Asked if his order closing hair and nail salons exempts those with only one worker, who sees only one client at a time, Beshear replied, “No, because that allows it to spread from person to person, and it is a close contact; and if you’re one of those persons, I’m sorry.” He said the same of physical and occupational therapists.
- “It is our duty as neighbors, it is our duty as citizens of the commonwealth, and it is our patriotic duty as Americans” to follow the rules, Beshear said, adding that those who don’t cooperate are “undermining the sacrifice that everyone else is making.”
- Asked if he was considering a “shelter in place” order like some other states and cities, Beshear said, “We’re not recommending that at the moment, but again, just limit those contacts.” He said such an order “sounds scary” but “still allow you take a walk, to go get groceries, to shop for the absolute essentials. All it’s trying to do in those places is encouraging the social distancing that we are already trying to do.”
- The Louisville Courier Journal reports, “In a state with so many people afflicted with serious medical conditions, COVID-19 is much more dangerous. . . . Almost half of adult Kentuckians — nearly 1.6 million people — are considered at risk of serious illness if they were to get COVID-19.”
- On a vote of 90-8, the Senate sent to President Trump a House-passed emergency bill that would provide two weeks’ sick leave at no less than two-thirds of normal pay to people who may have the coronavirus, to encourage them to stay home from work. Among other things, it would also expand family and medical leave and boost unemployment benefits. Tuesday night, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul delayed passage of the bill by forcing a vote on an amendment, which lost 95-3.
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that the 53 Republican senators and the White House would then start drafting another bill with “policy tools to put money quickly and directly into the hands of American families,” then negotiate with Senate Democrats to get a version that can the 60 votes needed to pass. “We know an additional bill of much larger proportions is necessary to meet this crisis,” he said.
- Ford Motor Co. announced that it would close its factories, including two in Louisville, affecting 12,000 workers.
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing Corp. said it would shut its plants Monday and Tuesday, and cancel a scheduled production Saturday at Georgetown, for a thorough cleaning of the plants.
- Kentucky is the focus of a story in Forbes magazine about how rural areas are coping.
- The New York Times has a situation piece from Cynthiana, which had Kentucky’s first identified case of covid-19 and at one point had half the cases in the state.
- Distiller Pernod Ricard USA said it will produce and donate hand sanitizer to help curb the national shortage; Rabbit Hole Distillery in Louisville will be a manufacturing site.
Video of 3/18/20 press conference
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