Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced new guidelines for bars and restaurants across the state and gave a recommendation for schools to delay the in-person start of school until late September.
This comes as he reported 275 new cases of COVID-19 in the Commonwealth, putting the overall total at 35,254, and the governor says while he believes the exponential growth we were seeing has slowed, that does not mean it’s time to relax. He says he believes it’s dangerous to ask students and staff to go back into school as normal with the pandemic still as active as it is—especially as children continue to test positive.
The governor is asking schools to start on September 28 for in-person learning. A news release from Christian County Public Schools Spokesperson John Rittenhouse states the school board will meet Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. in special session to vote on what the district will do in response to this recommendation.
Governor Beshear is also setting down guidance in the form of a curfew for bars and restaurants to stop selling food and beverages at 10 p.m. Chief of Staff La Tasha Buckner says bars will able to reopen with a forced seat rule and capacity for restaurants will go back up to 50 percent indoor capacity.
The positivity rate is at 5.17 percent and two more Kentuckians have died, bringing that total to 775. The governor says the number of positive cases is artificially low, due to computer program errors that catalogue and report the numbers.
The Tennessee Department of Health is reporting 1,202 new cases there, up to 123,914 and 10 new deaths, up to 1,233. Montgomery County saw 13 new cases, Robertson County gained nine new cases and Stewart County is gained four new cases.