Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear gave an update on COVID-19 in the Commonwealth Monday, reporting 213 new cases and a decrease to the positivity rate.
Kentucky still sits around 1.7 million people vaccinated so far, putting the state at roughly 800,000 left to go to reach the governor’s goal of 2.5 million. The governor says they are already lifting some restrictions in response to the rollout, including announcing that the mask mandate will change slightly—people outside at events with 1,000 people or less will no longer be required to wear a mask.
The mask mandate remains in place for indoor activities of all kinds, and for events outside that exceed 1,000 people. He says this week had fewer reported COVID-19 cases compared to last week, and the positivity rate went down to 3.15 percent.
Kentucky will once again be using the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which was previously put on pause but has now been allowed to resume. Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack says the vaccines have proven to be every effective in protecting against coronavirus, and the possibility of rare blood clotting problems are very unlikely.
The governor reported 11 total deaths, both new and identified in the ongoing audit of the state reporting system, bringing the death toll since the pandemic began to 6,459.
The Tennessee Department of Health reported 530 new COVID-19 cases there, along with six new deaths—the positivity rate in the Volunteer State is at 6.20 percent.