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 Facebook. The summary includes both points from the Beshear press conference and news items related to those bullets.
Summary Bullets from KY Health News (original post)
- Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday that he would order all non-life-sustaining business to close to in-person traffic on Thursday, and even for those that sustain life, “We are going to mandate the type of social distance that we have to see out there to protect our people.”
- Businesses remaining open to in-person traffic include groceries, pharmacies, banks, “manufacturing key to our national interest or life-sustaining goods,” Beshear said, as well as “all of those under the federal critical infrastructure sector; food, beverage, agriculture, media, gas stations and businesses needed for transportation; financial services, housing, building and construction; mail and delivery services, laundry services.”
- Also exempt are businesses “that supply life-sustaining businesses,” such as home-based care and services and professional services, but “You can do almost all of it from home,” Beshear said. “If regulations need to be eased to allow you to do it we will do it.” He said the detailed order would be issued Wednesday.
- Asked about caregivers, Beshear said that if they spend most of the day with someone, “You have to reduce your outside contacts with other people to a bare minimum.”
- Beshear said takeout restaurants should limit the number of people coming in for food. The Franklin County Health Department stopped takeout entirely because so many people were congregating in restaurants, Director Judy Mattingly told WKYT-TV.
- The governor said his various orders will be re-evaluated after about 10 days. “Now, I don’t want anybody out there to think that we think 10 days from now, we’re gonna be able to ease restrictions,” he said. “I can almost guarantee that we’re not. But what I want to be able to do is I want to be able to look forward to a chunk of time, and a period that we can come up to, and we can provide you a report in where we are. This will not last forever.”
- The governor said the hotline he set up to receive reports of violations of his emergency orders “received a couple thousand calls last night. Please bear with us as we work through those. As we put out more guidance, hopefully there will be more compliance.” Later, he said a call “doesn’t mean that there is noncompliance. It just means that people out there was to feel safe and protected.” The number is 833-KYSAFER or 833-597-2337.
- Noting the sacrifices Americans made in World War II, Beshear said, “This is, and I’ve been saying it, the challenge of our time. … I hate that there has to be a hotline; it just ought to be our duty.” He added later, “This is the defining moment, the defining moment of several generations, about whether we are willing to put each other first, about whether how much we care about each other’s lives is paramount.”
- Beshear said one person had tested positive for the virus after attending a “coronavirus party” of people in their 20s, who may have thought they couldn’t catch the disease. “This makes me mad, and it should make you mad,” he said, but he declined to even name the person’s county, saying “They made a mistake. … It’s not something that ought to follow them their entire life.”
- The state reported 39 new cases of COVID-19, the most yet in one day; it is not clear how much of that is from spread of the virus and how much is from increased testing. The total number of cases reported in the state is 163.
- Following a conversation with Beshear, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he reached out to federal Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to request additional testing kits and personal protective equipment, like masks, gloves and gowns, for Kentucky’s health-care workers, and to advocate for drive-through testing sites in the state. Beshear said Monday that the state was having trouble finding enough PPE and in some cases was being outbid by other states and the federal government, and that the lack of PPE is the main obstacle to expanding testing.
- A Frankfort church held services Sunday despite Beshear’s order banning “mass gatherings” but changed a series of services this week to online only, The State Journal reports.
- President Trump said he wants the country “opened up” by Easter, April 12, “and continued to play down the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic even as experts warned of a worsening crisis,” The Washington Post reports. “A World Health Organization official said that the United States has the potential to become the new epicenter of the global crisis.”
- Beshear began his daily press conference with a long list of for sacrifices and “positive modeling,” including donations of personal protective equipment, parents keeping a week-old baby away from her grandmother, teachers and school maintenance workers, and health-care workers “marching into what they know is danger but doing all they can to protect us.”
- Amazon closed one of its Shepherdsville fulfillment centers after several employees tested positive for the virus, the Courier Journal reports. The virus can live on some surfaces for up to three days.
- Kentucky’s community health centers will get $1.6 million to fight the virus, from legislation that Congress passed earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell announced. Here’s a list of the centers and their funding.
- UK HealthCare and Baptist Health closed hospitals and clinics to visitors, with some exceptions, because of the threat of COVID-19 transmission.
- UK has launched a telemedicine program for its patients to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The program will allow patients to be treated from home and will function similarly to an urgent-care clinic. To make an appointment, call 1-833-739-0225.
Video of 3/24 press conference
https://www.facebook.com/GovAndyBeshear/videos/654763121947026/
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