COVID-19 continues to be on the rise across the nation, including in Kentucky, where Governor Andy Beshear announced 1,514 new cases Monday.
Cases totals across the United States are breaking records, and the governor says Kentucky is not exception as last week was the single highest week for new cases in the state since the pandemic began. The overall total is up to 139,097 and the positivity rate climbed once more to nearly nine percent at 8.98. Governor Beshear says everyone is fatigued, but now is definitely not the time to grow lax.
He says he was glad to hear of a second vaccine that is testing even higher on effectiveness than expected, and if they both manage to stay true, it would tremendously change the fight against the virus.
The governor says if they don’t see improvement in the number of cases in the first few days of this week, his administration will be looking at possible new measures that will be taken to help slow the spread—though he says they will be different from the measures taken in March.
Executive Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown says cases only continue to climb in the correctional institutions across the state, including a new surge at a facility in Marion County.
Three more Kentuckians have died, putting that total at 1,664. The Tennessee Department of Health reported a record number of new cases there at 7,951 and 30 new deaths.