Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear gave an update on COVID-19 Monday, reporting 509 new cases, showing that cases have declined once again from week to week.
He also reported 15 new deaths, saying that the state will soon begin doing an audit on reported deaths just to make sure all records are accurate. The positivity rate dropped below five percent for the first time in many months, now at 4.84 percent.
Now that the Federal Drug Administration has approved emergency use of the new Johnson and Johnson COVID-19, Kentucky is set to receive a healthy amount of this one-shot vaccine, with Governor Beshear saying those will be going to agencies across the state as soon as possible.
The governor says it has been seven weeks of declining new COVID-19 cases in the Commonwealth, and he says that credit goes to Kentuckians who were willing to do what needed to be done to stomp back the spread of the virus. He says this past week had an upsurge in testing compared to the week before, due to winter weather, but still those cases declined.
The governor announced that starting Friday, they will be allowing funeral and memorial services, salons, bars and restaurants, bowling alleys, fitness centers and multiple other businesses and organizations to increase their indoor capacity by 10 percent. Mask mandates will remain in place, along with social distancing guidelines.
Child care facilities will be able to return to full capacity, to meet vital child care needs. The governor urges everyone to remain vigilant as these restrictions loosen, especially concerning more contagious variants of the virus.
The Tennessee Department of Health reported 689 new cases there, along with 10 new deaths—the positivity rate in the Volunteer State is now at 6.15 percent.