Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear once again held a COVID-19 press conference Monday afternoon, focusing on the Delta variant of the virus that is working its way into the state.
Governor Beshear says there are several things to be concerned about in relation to this more contagious variant, including that they have seen cases in individuals who have been vaccinated, but he says your best bet to keep from getting seriously ill or worse is to get the vaccine.
Vaccination efforts continue across the state, though the governor clarified that the majority of counties have less than a 50 percent vaccination rate. He says cases are increasing across the state, including the positivity rate once again reaching 5.48 percent and that this variant appears to be more dangerous towards younger age groups, which are typically less vaccinated than older age groups.
While not making any mandates or guidelines, the governor says his administration is recommending that Kentuckians who are not vaccinated continue to wear masks indoors, and if you are unvaccinated, to get the vaccine as soon as you possibly can to protect yourself and others.
About 2.2 million people have been vaccinated in the state, and Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack says that’s good but they need more to keep ‘break through’ cases down, which typically end when they encounter a vaccinated person who keeps it from spreading further.
Governor Beshear says at this time they are leaving the mask recommendations as recommendations and not issuing a mandate, because people now have the personal option to protect themselves in the vaccine, whereas when the pandemic began, they did not.
While Christian County remains ‘yellow’ on the state incident rate map, Hopkins, Muhlenberg and Webster counties are once again ‘red’. Todd County is also ‘yellow’ and Trigg County stays ‘green’.