Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear gave an update on COVID-19 Monday, reporting 167 new cases and that the state is set to receive $2.1 billion from the American Rescue Plan.
Governor Beshear says last week ended up being lower in cases from the week before, but the data is still showing the state in a plateau, and they would like to see that become declining again.
The positivity rate went down once again to 3.25 percent, and approximately 1.9 million people have received at least the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The governor announced that on May 28, they will lift the curfew on bars and restaurants and the seating requirements as well—he says they will keep lifting restrictions as more people get vaccinated and incidence rates stay down.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced state allocations today based primarily on each state’s share of the nation’s number of unemployed individuals from October through December 2020. The commonwealth performed better than expected in the fourth quarter of 2020, when the preliminary data was used.
The money will be added to the current fiscal year general fund, which is estimated to have more than $586 million in surplus and a $12 million surplus in the road fund.
Eleven more Kentuckians have died due to COVID, putting that total at 6,597 since the pandemic began.