Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear gave an update on the state of the Commonwealth Thursday, along with an update on COVID-19.
After reporting 655 new cases and a positivity rate of 3.51 percent, the governor says thanks to the vaccination efforts, they are starting a plan to begin slowly lifting restrictions across the state, including increasing outdoor event capacity to 75 percent for venues that have under 1,000 attendants starting May 28. He clarified that the recent mask mandate change that allows for small groups of fully vaccinated people can be indoors without a mask, applies to businesses as well, not just private gatherings.
He says once children between the ages of 12 to 15 years old are able to get the vaccine, which could happen in the coming weeks, they will begin looking into lifting more restrictions.
Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack once again vouched for the effectiveness and safety of available vaccines, calling information saying vaccines affect fertility completely false and unfounded.
In a bit of good news, the governor says the state recently received a greater credit rating from nationally recognized agency Fitch Ratings, due to solid economic recovery, which he says improves the state’s financial outlook for the future, including any borrowing that will need to be done on future projects. Along with that, he reported that April had one of the highest revenues due to the sales tax and motor vehicle tax on record, meaning the budget will have a large surplus at the end of the fiscal year.
Governor Beshear says these things show that the choices that were made to keep Kentuckians safe is being recognized, and that it was the right thing to do for the future of the state.
Approximately 1.84 million people have been vaccinated in Kentucky, and six more Kentuckians have died due to COVID-19. They continue to monitor COVID variants in the state, saying they are certainly on the rise, with four B117 cases listed in Christian County.