Governor Andy Beshear again discussed a gradual and safe transition to being healthy at work when the economy begins to gradually reopen in May and talked about a significant state budget shortfall during his briefing Thursday afternoon.
The governor says the budget is facing a shortfall of up to $500 million dollars in the current fiscal year and he’s joining with the other 49 governors to ask for federal relief for state and local governments financially strapped by pandemic.
Govenor Besher reiterated reopening daycare services to allow more Kentuckians the capability to return to the workforce remains the major challenge going forward, as it’s nearly impossible for children to social distance in some of those settings and that can create an exponentially higher number of indirect contacts for all families involved.
Public Health Commissioner, Dr. Steven Stack urged medical providers in Kentucky to sign up for the Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System, which allows them to send in their used N95 masks to be decontaminated via vaper phase hydrogen peroxide.
Dr. Stack reiterated that public pools won’t be able to reopen in Kentucky until at least late summer, saying it would be nearly impossible to enforce social distancing guidance at those pools.
There were 174 new coronavirus cases in Kentucky from Wednesday to Thursday and five additional deaths. There are now 240 total deaths, 4,708 total cases and 1,675 patients have recovered.
The governor announced he’ll be taking Saturday off from conducting his afternoon briefing, meaning it will be the first day in well over a month Kentuckians won’t hear from Beshear regarding the pandemic.
Education Cabinet Deputy Secretary Josh Benton says emails were going out to about 9,000 unemployment claimants who still need to provide documentation to verify their identities.
Tennessee is up to 10,735 cases and 199 deaths and 5,338 patients have recovered. Montgomery County gained five cases to 146, Robertson is up nine to 148 and Stewart County remains at seven.
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