Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced 518 cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and says there’s still a long way to go in the fight against coronavirus.
That bumps the overall total in the state up to 24,540, with 560,161 tests being administered to date—on a seven day average, the positivity rate is at 4.92 percent. Of the 518 new cases, 13 of them were children under the age of five. Governor Beshear says people continue to recover from the virus, more than 7,000 people, but he warns that many of them are dealing with extended health conditions.
Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack says while testing continues to increase and they will keep increasing it, he urges people to do their best on keeping themselves from getting COVID-19 by abiding by those well-known health guidelines.
Three more Kentuckians have died, bringing that total to 677. The Governor urged to people to not let COVID-19 keep them from going to the doctor’s office for other health needs, saying they know healthcare providers are working hard to make sure their offices are as safe as possible.
He says that the forecasts for the state’s budget and revenues is better than expected, and says a preliminary analysis shows there will not be a budget shortfall for the fiscal year that just ended. He says if that stays true, that could result in no budget cuts to departments, including education.
He bragged on the saving and cutting that was done by departments to help manage any potential budget shortfalls, however he is still urging federal government to include relief to state governments in a possible future coronavirus relief bill.
The Tennessee Department of Health is reporting 2,473 additional COVID-19 cases there, up to 84,417 and 17 new deaths, up to 888 since the pandemic began. Montgomery County is up to 1,222 cases, Robertson County is reporting 1,184 and Stewart County is at 48 cases.