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)
- Gov. Andy Beshear said the state now has at least eight different labs providing COVID-19 testing “in one form or fashion” and that the state hopes to see more soon.
- Beshear said about 47 cases have been identified in Kentucky, including another child, a six-year-old in Jefferson County. “It’s not that children can’t get coronavirus,” he said. “It’s that they are exceedingly resilient to the coronavirus.”
- Kentucky is reporting a second death related to COVID-19, a 64-year-old Jefferson County man who died March 13. Beshear said a test had just came back confirming that the man had the virus.
- Beshear reminded Kentuckians that just because a region doesn’t have a positive test reported doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a case, because with so many people infected, but with no symptoms, “You have it.”
- The governor noted that there are still people who are “flocking to places with crowds” and encouraged them to stop doing so. “It is your patriotic duty,” he said, to practice social distancing and use good hygiene to avoid infecting yourself or others.
- He assured everyone that the state’s food supply is adequate and “We are not going to run out.” He encouraged everyone to only shop for a week’s worth of food and supplies at a time.
- He again called on businesses to allow people to work at home if at all possible, especially if their jobs are primarily done on the phone or on the computer. And if they must come to the workplace, to practice social distancing. “This is your workforce, but they are my people too,” he said.
- Beshear said he was “extremely disappointed” in the Senate version of the budget, which he said cuts Medicaid, cuts dollars that make sure every child is signed up for health insurance, defunds teachers’ health care for the next two years, and limits his authority to move money to manage the pandemic. “That’s being a bad neighbor,” he said.
- Beshear encouraged everyone to sign up for unemployment insurance and Medicaid who qualifies for it. “There is no stigma,” he said. “These are times like we’ve never seen before.”
- He told small contractors and independent business owners that the state is working to provide for them as well and believe this will be be possible through Small Business Administration loans and additional steps that will be announced next week.
- Beshear said church services and all gatherings where people come together socially need to stop. He said this order was put forth so that Kentuckians would have clear guidance on what is expected. “We don’t want to issue penalties,” he said.
- He said restaurants and bars are now allowed to deliver alcoholic beverages.
- Child-care facilities will be required to close by end of day tomorrow. Beshear said exemptions have been extended to include children of front-line health workers, police, firefighters, correction officers and state social workers. YMCAs have stepped up to provide childcare for these groups.
- Beshear said industrial respirators can now be used by health-care workers against the virus and that the state was taking steps to get them.
- He said no one should be evicted during the crisis.
- Leaders of the Kentucky General Assembly said they would adjourn until March 26, then again until April 1, then recess for Beshear vetoes.
- Large-scale coronavirus testing is beginning in Kentucky. Integrity Extended Healthcare in Danville is doing 40 to 60 drive-through tests a day for the virus, for patients pre-screened by phone, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports: “Dr. Pallaki Ravi said … with proper funding to take full advantage of Integrity’s resources, the facility could do as many as 100 tests per day if needed. ‘We don’t get funding for specimen collection, personal protection equipment, or phone call screening.’ The tests go to Solaris Diagnostics and Quest Diagnostics, which return results in 24 to 48 hours, Ravi said.
- Older people appear to be more vulnerable to the virus, but that does not mean that younger people are significantly less vulnerable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 38 percent of Americans hospitalized for COVID-19 have been between 20 and 54, and nearly half of the 121 patients who were admitted to intensive care units were adults under 65.
- Experts say Kentucky’s rural hospitals are not equipped to deal with the pandemic, the Herald-Leader reports.
- Craig Martin, professor and associate dean at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, who coordinates courses on infectious diseases, published a myth-busting piece about COVID-19 and its impact on communities.
- Pro-Russian media “have been spreading disinformation about coronavirus” in Western countries to aggravate the public-health crisis, “specifically by undermining public trust in national healthcare systems,” the European Union’s diplomatic service says in a report obtained by The Guardian.
- Vox published a graphic distinguishing COVID-19 from the flu:
Video of 3/19/20 press conference
https://www.facebook.com/GovAndyBeshear/videos/525374488415544/
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