Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced 342 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, and made an announcement concerning tracking COVID-19 in the education system going forward.
Those new cases brings the overall total in the state up to 57,282, with the positivity rate declining slightly once again to 4.17 percent—Kentucky broke the milestone of one million coronavirus tests being administered in the Commonwealth since the pandemic began. The governor says those are two points of good news and he’s hopeful the positivity rate will continue to go down.
Five more Kentuckians have died, putting the death toll at 1,065. Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack gave a presentation on what the protocol will be for schools reporting COVID-19 cases, including that parents and guardians have 24 hours to report a positive case to their school, who from there will report it to the state.
The public will be able to visit an online COVID-19 dashboard to keep track of ongoing cases in the school systems, which will be accessible through the Kentucky COVID information website. The governor says after September 28, there will not be another recommendation about if schools should go in-person or not from his office, leaving the decisions at the local level. That will only change if factors were to become dramatically worse.
The Tennessee Department of Health is reporting 2,450 new cases of COVID-19 and 19 new deaths. Montgomery County saw 36 new cases, Robertson County gained 21 and Stewart County gained three new cases.