Plans for Phase 2 and 3 of reopening Kentucky’s economy—including restaurants and child care—were outlined by Governor Andy Beshear during his afternoon briefing Thursday.
Restaurants will be allowed to reopen to in-house dining at a 33 percent capacity and with appropriately-spaced unlimited outdoor seating on May 22.
Movie theaters and fitness centers will reopen with guidelines in place on June 1 and public and private campgrounds with social distancing on June 11.
The governor says low-touch outdoor youth sports can resume June 15 and child care facilities will reopen June 15 with guidance from the state on how to operate differently than in the past.
Phase 3 is set to begin in July, when bars can reopen and groups of up to 50 people will be able to congregate.
He reiterated all of the plans are subject to change, should there be a spike in cases.
Governor Beshear also announced a partnership with First Care Urgent Care to offer drive-thru testing at all of its locations, including Hopkinsville and Madisonville.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced earlier in the day that Pennyroyal Healthcare Services, Inc. of Hopkinsville received $163,000 in federal funds through the stimulus package to increase testing capacity. That organization is a federally qualified health center that initially started as a branch of the Pennyroyal Center, but has since broken away and provides primary care.
There were 208 new cases of the virus from Wednesday to Thursday in Kentucky, bringing the overall total to 6,129. Eleven more Kentuckians died, with eight of those in long-term care facilities, marking a total of 294 coronavirus fatalities in the commonwealth.
Montgomery County gained two new cases to 155, Robertson gained nine to 195 and Stewart County has seven cases. Tennessee has had 14,096 cases and 237 fatalities since the pandemic began.