Kentucky ranks 40th in child well-being, 3 slots lower than 2021; child obesity and underweight births up, child death rate way up

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Kentucky, where nearly one in four people are children, ranked 40th among states for the overall well-being of its children, dropping three slots from the last report, according to the 2023 Kids Count Data Book.

“As we look ahead to a contentious gubernatorial race this fall and a state-budget year for the General Assembly, now is the time to look more deeply at the needs of the child care sector and what it will cost the commonwealth – what it will cost our kids – if there’s no action,” Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said in a news release. "The Data Book shows concerning trends in education, health, and family economics as we enter a post-pandemic world. Our elected officials must use this as a place of common ground and as a springboard for action in 2024."

The Data Book, released June 14 by KYA and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, rates children's overall well-being through 16 indicators in four major domains: health, economic security, education and family and community.

Overall, Kentucky saw improvements in four of the 16 indicators, all of them in the family and community category, did worse in nine of them and and stayed the same in three. Here is a look at each domain. 

Health: Kentucky's ranking dropped for the third year in a row, with three indicators used to measure health worsening. This year's report ranks the state 40th, down from 35th last year. 

This year's report shows 41% of Kentucky's children are either overweight or obese in 2020-21, up from 37% in 2018-19.  The national rate is 33%. 

The state also saw a big increase in the rate of deaths of children. It rose to 37 deaths per 100,000 in 2021, up from 29 per 100,000 in 2019. 

It also saw an increase in the rate of babies born weighing less than 5.5 pounds, which is considered underweight. That rate increased to 9.1% in 2021 from 8.7% in 2019. 

The only good news in this section is that the share of Kentucky's children with health insurance stayed the same between 2019 and 2021, 4%.

Education: Kentucky ranked 29th in the report's Education domain, down from 26th last year.  The good news was  that 91% of the state's high school students graduate on time, well above the national rate of 86%. And, this rate has held steady between 2018-19 and 2019-20. 

The other three indicators of education worsened. By far, the biggest change was seen in the percentage of eighth-graders not proficient in math, increasing to 79% in 2022 from 71% in 2019.  The percentage of fourth-graders not proficient in reading also increased, to 69% in 2022, up from 65% in 2019. And the share of preschool-age children not in nursery school, preschool or kindergarten increased to 60% in 2017-21, up from 58% in 2012-16. 

Economic well-being: Kentucky ranks 41st in economic well-being, down from 38th in last year's report, with three indicators worsening since 2019. 

The percentage of children whose parents lacked secure employment increased to 33% in 2021 from 31% and teens not in school or working increased to 9% from 8%. Also, the percentage of Kentucky children living in households with a high housing cost burden increased to 24% in 2021 from 23% in 2019. A high housing-cost household is defined as one where more than 30% of monthly household pre-tax income is spent on housing-related expenses, including rent, mortgage payments, taxes and insurance.

The report says that in 2021, 22% of Kentucky's children lived in families with incomes below the poverty threshold, defined then as a family of two adults and two children with an income below $27,479. This rate was the same in 2019. 

Family and Community: Kentucky ranked 42nd in this domain, the same as last year. It showed improvement in all indicators, including children living in high-poverty areas (12%), children living in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma (10%), children living in a single-parent household (33%), and teen births. In 2021, there were 22 teen births per 1,000 females aged 15-19. In 2019, that number was 25 per 1,000. In 2021, the national rate was 14 per 1,000. 

The Kids Count Data Center provides current and trend data for child well-being indicators related to each of the four domains in the report, at both a state and county level. It also offers a feature to create customized tables, maps, bar charts and graphs.

Focus on child care

This year's report also explores how the lack of affordable and accessible child care shortchanges children and causes parents to frequently miss work or even quit their jobs, and those who can find child care pay dearly for it. 

Brooks said, “Without safe child care they can afford and get to, parents face impossible choices, affecting not only their families, but their employers as well. These consistent challenges facing the child care infrastructure – accessibility, cost, and low wages for the workforce – impact the commonwealth’s economy, parents’ ability to advance in careers, and the early learning of our youngest Kentuckians.”

KYA called on the state to invest in child care in the same way it does other core infrastructure, like roads and emergency-response systems. 

It also called on public and private leaders to work together to improve the infrastructure for family child-care homes by increasing access to startup and expansion capital. 

And it called on Congress to reauthorize and strengthen the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act, to increase funding for public pre-kindergarten and Head Start and to expand the federal Child Care Access Means Parents in School program, which serves student parents. 

Ky. Voices for Health sets sessions across state to give updates on policies affecting the health and well-being of Kentuckians

Kentucky Voices for Health and its Thrive KY advocacy partners are hosting regional events to provide updates on state and federal policies that impact the health and well-being of Kentuckians. 

The two-hour sessions will cover important updates on the economy, Medicaid, KCHIP, SNAP, housing, transportation, child care, public health, behavioral health, and suicide prevention, as well as new tools available to assist community members with meeting basic needs, and tips on being a more effective advocate in your community.

The first event was held July 12 in Lexington. Events are scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon local time at:

• July 26: Owensboro, Green River Area Development District
• Aug. 2: Louisville, location to be announced
• Aug. 16: Bardstown, Nelson County Public Library
• Aug. 23: Independence, Kenton County Public Library Branch
• Aug. 30: Paducah, McCracken County Public Library
• Sept. 6: Hopkinsville, Hopkinsville-Christian County Public Library
• Sept. 13: Bowling Green, Warren County Public Library Main Branch
• Sept. 20: Somerset, Pulaski County Public Library
• Sept. 27: Corbin (event at 10:30 a.m.), Corbin Public Library
• Oct. 4: Whitesburg, Harry M. Caudill Memorial Library
• Oct. 11: Paintsville, Johnson County Public Library
• Oct. 18: Ashland, Boyd County Public Library Main Branch
• Oct. 25: Flemingsburg, Fleming County Public Library
• Nov. 1: West Liberty, Gateway Area Development District

KVH says continuing education and/or professional development credit will be available and that the event is open to anyone who serves their community, including community leaders, public employees, nonprofit organizations, frontline service providers, outreach workers, educators, faith leaders and counselors.

'Functionally 100%' of new coronavirus cases this month have been among the unvaccinated; back-to-work incentive offered

Washington Post chart, adapted by Kentucky Health News; for a larger version, click on it.

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

Making what they called the best argument for vaccination against the coronavirus, Gov. Andy Beshear and his health commissioner said Thursday that only 0.08 percent of recent virus cases in Kentucky are in people who have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

At his weekly press conference, Beshear also announced a back-to-work incentive for Kentuckians getting extra unemployment benefits due to the pandemic, and a $763 million allocation of federal pandemic relief funds to child-care centers. Here are the details:

Vaccinations: Health Commissioner Steven Stack said 99.92% of the state's virus cases in the last four weeks, six out of 7,290, were in unvaccinated people. "That is functionally a hundred percent," he said. During the same period, unvaccinated people were 99 percent of those people hospitalized for Covid-19, and 93 percent of the deaths from the disease.

But only 49% of Kentucky's population has had at least one dose of vaccine, and just 42.5% are fully vaccinated, figures similar to states where the Delta variant of the virus is causing more hospitalizations.

"We've got to continue to talk about the vaccines," Beshear said. "The Delta variant's out there, and the threat is very real." He said the 99% figures presented by Stack "ought to be some of the best evidence for everybody who's qualified going out and getting vaccinated."

Stack said the variant, which originated in India and is expected to become dominant in the U.S., is more contagious than others, but only slightly more resistant to vaccines, which are 88% effective against death or severe disease from the variant.

"If you get vaccinated, you have essentially got a 90-percent-plus reduction in your risk for death and serious disease and going in the hospital," Stack said. "The new Delta variant is dangerous; it's more dangerous for younger people than the previous versions. We're gonna see more younger people get hurt. . . . Your risk is incredibly reduced if you get vaccinated." 

Stack noted that new coronavirus cases in Kentucky have declined for seven weeks in a row, much as new cases around the world have dropped for eight straight weeks, and said, "This is the result of vaccination, hands down, pure and simple. Vaccines did this."

State Dept. for Public Health graph, adapted by Ky. Health News; for a larger version, click on it.

Stack noted that the first of three drawings in the state's lottery-style sweepstakes for vaccinated people will be held next week, with the entry deadline Wednesday night. He said 472,938 adults had entered for a chance at $1 million, and 26,636 youth, ages 12-17, had entered for a full postsecondary-education scholarship, five of which will be awarded in each drawing.

He said those numbers create "way better odds" than the state lottery, and he hopes they inspire people to get a shot. "I hope, though, they're even more inspired by the fact that 100 percent of the people getting sick now in Kentucky are ones who are not vaccinated."

Vaccinations are lagging again; the seven-day average is below 10,000 a day. Beshear said signups for the drawings indicate that they have spurred vaccination, but it's hard if not impossible to tell how much. He said Ohio saw a boost when its drawings were announced, and when its first drawing was held.

Asked what the state might do about the possibility of the virus spreading from a free J.D. Shelburne concert Saturday in Spencer County, which has the state's second-lowest vaccination rate, Beshear said he was unaware of the event, but said the county's vaccinations may be under-reported due to ZIP code areas crossing county lines. Stack agreed, but said that even without the anomaly, the county would still have one of the lower vaccination rates.

Unemployment benefits: After weeks of requests from businesses and demands from Republicans, the Democratic governor said the state would give $1,500 each to the first 15,000 Kentuckians who are getting extra unemployment benefits of $300 a week and go back to work for four weeks. Critics have said the federally funded payments, which will expire Sept. 30, are keeping people from going back to work at a time when employers are having difficulty finding workers.

The governor said he has discussed the issue daily with business people, who he said have always thought a back-to-work payment would do more to get people back in the labor force than ending the payments, which some Republican governors have done. "This is meant to be surgical," he said. Details are at btw.ky.gov.

Beshear said the program will cost $22.5 million, which will come from funds the state has yet to spend from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that Congress passed in bipartisan votes last year. He said the parameters were chosen to get one-fourth of those receiving the extra benefit back onto payrolls, and to equal five weeks of the extra benefit, which "gets you real close" to Sept. 30. He said he could still end the benefits before that date, based on his monitoring of the situation and the experience of other states.

State House Speaker David Osborne said the incentive is “extremely insulting to those who have worked throughout this pandemic. It defies logic that they would choose to do so as long as the additional federal payments are available. . . . The fact there are more than a hundred thousand available jobs, many of which already offer starting bonuses, should serve as plenty of incentive without a one-time payment.”

Child care: The money for child care will come from the American Rescue Plan Act, passed with only Democratic votes. A state press release said $470 million will go to "sustainability payments" to child-care providers and $293 million will be used to increase provider payments, improve payment policies, raise wages for early-childhood educators and family child-care homes; and increase "the number of quality child care options for under-served populations."

Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander said the state will leave the pandemic with more small family providers of child care than it had going in, "so it is possible to work together to get a better spot. . . . I am so happy, and the child-care providers are so happy, that we now understand how important they are. They are vital to all of us getting back to work."

Families can apply for assistance at kynect.ky.gov. Information is also available at local offices of the Department for Community Based Services, where applications are also accepted.

Daily numbers: All major measures of the pandemic in Kentucky continued to decline Thursday. The state reported 204 new cases of the virus, lowering the seven-day rolling average by 7, to 174. The share of Kentuckians testing positive over the last seven days is 1.85%, the lowest on record, and the daily new-case rate over the last seven days is 3.22 per 100,000 residents.

Counties with rates more than double the statewide rate are Bracken, 20.6; Caldwell, 17.9; Hopkins, 16; Webster, 13.2; Graves, 10; Anderson, 9.4; Letcher, 8.6; Simpson, 8.5; Gallatin, 8.1; Morgan, 7.5; Carter, 7.5; Leslie, 7.2; Casey, 7.1; Greenup, 6.9; and Pike, 6.7.

The state recorded four Covid-19 deaths Thursday, bringing Kentucky's toll to 7,200. Deaths have been in single digits for the last 13 days, and no more than four have been reported for the last nine days. Deaths are averaging 3.14 per day over the last seven says and 4.43 a day over the last 14 days. The state has stopped listing individual deaths.

General Assembly sends a resolution on emergency orders and several other pandemic-related bills to the governor

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The General Assembly has sent Gov. Andy Beshear a list which of Covid-19 emergency orders should stay in place if the legislature wins its legal battle over the governor's emergency powers.

House Speaker David Osborne
(Legislative Research Commission photo)

Acknowledging that Franklin Circuit Court had temporarily blocked three laws that would limit those powers, and there has been "frustration with some of those executive orders," House Speaker David Osborne told the House, "There are some very good executive orders that have been issued that are beneficial to businesses, whether it be extending continuing education requirements, waiving penalties and interest on businesses that have been shut down, price gouging, waiving co-pays on vaccines on testing, things that are actually important to our businesses and individuals around the state."

The list of nearly 60 emergency orders and regulations supported by the resolution does not include two key public-health measures that are proven to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus: the mandate to wear face coverings indoors, and capacity limits at restaurants and businesses. 

House Democratic Leader Joni Jenkins of Shively asked Osborne why, "given that experts and scientists have told us that the best way to defeat this pandemic is by mask wearing and social distancing." 

Osborne replied, "These are orders that are not all encompassing. Acknowledging that we have no idea when the courts will decide the the fates of Senate Bill 1, Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 1, these were things that we chose to extend regardless of what those findings were." 

The three bills had emergency clauses and were enacted into law over Beshear vetoes, but Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd issued a temporary injunction preventing them from taking effect.

The new legislation is in a joint resolution, which carries the weight of law, but is not codified into statute. Emergency orders not included in the resolution would immediately expire if the Republican lawmakers win the pending litigation. 

The House agreed to the Senate's changes to House Joint Resolution 77, which would allow certain orders that were set to expire on March 4 to expire 90 days from the effective day of the Act. The House's version allowed only 60 days. 

The resolution also includes a list of regulations that would expire 30 days from the effective date of the law, to allow time for issuing replacements pending the fate of SB 2, which sets new rules for emergency regulations. 

The resolution would prohibit Beshear from declaring a new state of emergency or to continue to implement any of the emergency orders if they are based upon the same facts and circumstances as the original coronavirus pandemic declaration was made without prior approval of the General Assembly. 

Asked what would prompt a new executive order, Osborne said if there could be a "huge surge" of cases or an unknown variant that could cause a significant change in circumstances.

Leaders of the Republican-controlled legislature have not appealed Shepherd's ruling, but if he or a higher court ultimately rules in their favor, the bill could prevent a special legislative session.

The House did not pass Senate President Robert Stivers' SB 5 to shield businesses from pandemic-related lawsuits. It could still pass in the March 29-30 veto session, but Beshear could veto it without fear of being overridden, so it could be amended to suit him.

Other pandemic-related bills

The General Assembly sent Beshear several health-related bills that were prompted by the pandemic.  

Senate Bill 8, sponsored by Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, would allow adults, emancipated minors and parents making decisions for children to opt out of mandatory vaccines in an epidemic for medical reasons, religious grounds or a  "conscientiously held belief."  

The bill does not change any current school immunization requirements, which allow exemptions for medical or religious reasons only, nor does it impact any workplace requirements. The Beshear administration has said it has no plans to mandate vaccinations in the pandemic.

House Bill 140, sponsored by Rep. Deanna Frazier, R-Richmond, would permit telehealth services that were allowed to expand due to the pandemic to remain in place after it ends. A key part of the bill would continue to allow audio-only visits, which is important because the state has many places without high-speed internet and many patients who are not adept at using technology.

HB 276, sponsored by Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, would allow Kentuckians trained as temporary Covid-19 personal care attendants under an executive order to apply their supervised training toward their Registered Nurse Aide certification. 

The bill also requires the Department for Medicaid Services to accept the employment of temporary Covid-19 personal-care attendants as meeting training requirements for nurse aides if they have worked a minimum of 80 hours in a skilled nursing facility under the supervision of a licensed or registered nurse, have established competency, and have successfully completed the nurse-aide exam. 

About 300 personal-care attendants are working in Kentucky long-term care facilities, Moser said while presenting the bill to the House in February. 

SB 154, by Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, would allow advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants to prescribe and supervise home-health services. During the pandemic, federal law has allowed APRNs and PAs that authority. An emergency clause ensures there would be no gap in care if the federal rule ended.

SB 148, by Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, would prevent Beshear from reducing capacity at child-care centers below what was allowed before the pandemic. Carroll operates such a center. Beshear said Monday that the centers were allowed to return to normal class sizes. The facilities have been asked to follow a set of guidelines to ensure the safety of the children and staff. 

Child-care centers allowed to resume normal class sizes; state records 5,000th Covid-19 death and 1 millionth vaccination

State Dept. for Public Health graph, adapted by Ky. Health News; to enlarge, click on it.

By Bruce Maples and Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

On the day Kentucky recorded its 5,000th Covid-19 death and delivered its millionth vaccination, Gov. Andy Beshear announced that licensed child-care facilities could now return to normal class sizes.

Beshear noted that the class sizes, which are determined by children's age, would be the same as before the pandemic but the facilities would still be expected to follow a set of guidelines to ensure the safety of the children and the staff:

• Classrooms must still stay in groups and not mix groups of children throughout the day.
• All other health and safety precautions established in emergency regulations are still in place.
• All child-care providers are encouraged to receive the Covid-19 vaccination.
• Visitor restrictions remain in place, but the emergency regulation has been changed to allow access by candidates for Child Development Associate credentials and their professors. 

A celebratory milestone: Beshear, first lady Britainy Beshear and Health Commissioner Steven Stack held a ceremony at the State Capitol Monday recognizing the milestone of 1 million Kentuckians getting their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. "These vaccines are going to take us out of this pandemic and into a new era," Beshear said. "This is truly both a miracle of modern medicine and a tribute to so many Kentuckians that have worked to make this happen."

He noted that Kentucky administered its first coronavirus vaccine just three months ago, on Dec. 14, and said the state has set another weekly record, with one day remaining in the vaccine-reporting week. He said the state now has 567 vaccine sites, with more expected to be forthcoming.

"Even as we mark this hopeful milestone, we must be clear-eyed to know that this war is not yet won," he said, adding later, "How we honor them is to ensure that we defeat this pandemic as quickly as possible and we make sure that everybody counts, that everybody gets this vaccine, that we bring everybody with us to the finish line."

Finally, he said the state has hit the 100% efficiency mark in its delivery of the vaccines, meaning that every dose the state has received has been put into someone’s arm.

Assuming that the state’s vaccine supply continues to expand, Beshear said, he expects to not only meet President Biden’s goal of being able to vaccinate every willing adult by the end of May, but to beat that goal. He reiterated, “We are going to defeat Covid-19 this year.”

A different and somber milestone: On the same day the state celebrated vaccinating over a million people, it recorded 23 more deaths from Covid-19, making the total 5,005. Beshear noted the passage of that big, round number, and closed his press conference by talking about what it means:

"I got a chance this weekend to be with a couple of friends who have lost parents, and to talk to them. ... And I realize that their grief isn't just when it happens. It's every one of those special moments where their parents, the grandparents to their kids, would be there for that thing they love. It could be a baseball game. It could be a graduation. And knowing that grief for 5,000-plus families, and by the end of this many more, because we're not going to have any unknown soldiers."

He referred to his earlier statement that he believed the state would finish its audit to find missing Covid-19 deaths by Thursday, and continued: "We ought to watch out for one another when those moments come. I know they are painful, and we need to be there for each other, knowing that that grief is not over."

He concluded, "Let's remember that our compassion wasn't just important in the beginning, and in the middle, but at the end, and then past the end. We're going to emerge, I think, with a bright future and sprinting ahead – but we're also going to emerge as scarred people. We don't go through something like this without carrying some of it out with us. Do I believe we can use that to become better people, better to each other? Absolutely. But I also think it means that we're going to have to be understanding with ourselves, and with each other in the years to come."

At a memorial service March 6, the one-year anniversary of the first case in Kentucky, Beshear said the Capitol grounds would get a permanent memorial to honor those who have died, those who have been left behind, the state’s front-line workers, and all who have done what they could to keep others safe. Monday, he announced creation of a Team Kentucky Memorial Fund to finance the memorial. For more information, go to teamkycovidmemorial.ky.gov.

Pandemic trends: Overall, measures of the pandemic in Kentucky continued to decline, though some showed signs of a plateau.

The number of new cases for the Monday-to-Sunday week declined for the ninth week in a row. The latest was smaller, but was still a clear decline.

The state reported 396 new cases Monday, raising the seven-day rolling average to 797, nine more than Sunday's average. 

The percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the coronavirus was the same as Sunday, 3.99 percent, about the average for the last 10 days. Noting that this could be a plateau, Beshear said it would bear watching.

Beshear noted that only eight counties are in the "red zone" for places averaging more than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents over the previous seven days. The state's daily report said the statewide rate has declined to 13.39 per 100,000.

Lyon County continued to have by far the highest infection rate in the nation, due to outbreaks of the virus at state prisons there. Beshear had said Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown would talk about that Monday, but he said Brown's report had been delayed until Tuesday. (David B. Snow of The Paducah Sun has details on the outbreaks.)

Other counties with rates considerably higher than the statewide rate were Carroll and Knox, 34.9; Powell, 33.5; Clay, 33; Owsley, 32.4; Laurel, 28.7; Butler, 25.5; Bell, 23.0; Trimble, 21.9; Adair, 21.6; Green, 20.9; Carter, 20.3; Whitley, 20.1; and Simpson, 20

In other pandemic news Monday:  

• Kentucky hospitals reported 464 Covid-19 patients, 114 of them in intensive care and 67 of those on ventilators. All numbers were down slightly.
• The 23 deaths were a Barren County man, 47; a Bullitt County man, 74; a Calloway County woman, 92; three Fayette County women, 66, 69, and 91, and a man, 79; a Greenup County man, 71; in Jefferson County, three women, 70, 85, and 86, and two men, 78 and 83; a Kenton County man, 47; a Logan County woman, 72, and a man, 84; a Lyon County man, 48; a Meade County man, 70; a Mercer County woman, 64; a Montgomery County woman, 76; a Pike County woman, 82; in Warren County, woman, 60, and a man, 63.
• Counties with 10 or more new cases were Jefferson, 91; Fayette, 34, Warren, 16; Laurel, 14; Knox, 12; McCracken, 12; and Boone, 11.

Child-care workers can now get vaccinated for the coronavirus

Dept. for Public Health graph, relabeled by Ky. Health News; to enlarge the image, click on it.

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

After months of feeling frustrated that they were not placed on a par with school personnel, which would have prioritized them to get a shot for the novel coronavirus, child-care workers have been placed in Phase 1B and can move to the front of the line, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Monday.

"The decision to move child-care workers up was based on both listening to those individuals, understanding where they were coming from, but just as importantly" the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "moving them up as well . . . without significant announcement or fanfare," Beshear said at a news conference. "We're where we think the timing is right for it."

The state is now vaccinating those in Phase 1A , which includes long-term-care and assisted-living facilities and health-care personnel and 1B, which includes first responders, anyone 70 and older, K-12 school personnel and, now, child-care workers.  

Beshear said child-care workers can now sign up at any location that offers the vaccine, and health departments are being asked to focus on them and people 70 and older.

Deborah Yetter of the Louisville Courier Journal has reported about the frustrations of this group of essential workers. She writes, "In a Jan. 15 letter, 20 organizations led by the United Way of Kentucky sent an "urgent request" to the Beshear administration asking that child-care workers be included with other school staff for vaccine priority." 

Kentucky was expected to wrap up vaccinating all of its K-12 teachers and school staff who wanted the coronavirus vaccine last week, making it the first state to accomplish that task, Education Week reports. The teachers' union, the Kentucky Education Association, supported Beshear's election.

Many teachers continue to work remotely, but Beshear has said getting them vaccinated would make reopening schools safer. The CDC said last week that wasn't required if other safeguards were followed.

Beshear reported that over 12 percent of Kentuckians have received a first dose of vaccine. The state's vaccine report shows 538,298 Kentuckians have received their first shot. 

Cabinet for Health and Family Services Inspector General Adam Mather announced that CVS Health and Walgreens, which have provided vaccines to the state's long-term care facilities through a federal program, are now offering their third and final clinics, where only second doses will be given. 

As of Feb. 1, only 45% of long-term care staff had been vaccinated through this program, according to state data. Health Commissioner Steven Stack said last week that any staffer who did not get vaccinated through the program can still sign up at any of the state's locations because they are health-care workers.

Mather said CVS and Walgreens, working with the state, have expanded the program to seniors in low income housing, adults in the Acquired Brain Injury waiver program and participants in the Supports for Community Living program. Mather said they vaccinated over 2,000 people in these groups Feb. 12-14. 

Beshear acknowledged that canceling and rescheduling vaccinations because of bad weather has created anxiety, but assured Kentuckians that they would get vaccinated. "We will get you that shot of hope," he said. 

Today's numbers: The state put numbers on what Beshear announced Sunday, that the state has had five weeks of declining cases for the first time since the pandemic surfaced in Kentucky 49 weeks ago. Cases declined from a high of 26,799 the week beginning Jan. 4, to 13,008 in the week ended Sunday. 

"This is the type of decrease that we want to see and we want to keep it going," Beshear said. "If we can keep it going, we can look at easing some capacity restrictions, maybe being able to do a little bit more . . . this makes everything safer around us, so let's continue this good work." 

The share of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the last seven days fell again, to 6.57%. This rate, which Beshear called a leading indicator that shows how "hot" a state is, has also dropped for five weeks in a row.

Dept. for Public Health graph, relabeled by Ky. Health News; to enlarge the image, click on it.

The governor also cautioned that it will be important to remain careful and to continue to do the "right things" because of the new coronavirus variants, which can potentially spread more quickly. 

Beshear announced 723 new cases of the virus Monday, cautioning that the number could be low because the weather could have affected health departments' ability to report.  "But, this does follow the trend we have been seeing and so we hope that we'll continue to see that in the data as we go."

The state's seven-day rolling average of new cases fell to 1,539 per day, the lowest since Oct. 28. However, its seven-day infection rate is fifth in the nation, says The New York Times' compilation.

As case numbers drop, so do county-level infection rates. Today, 41 of the state's 120 counties are no longer in the red zone, for counties with averaging 25 cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days. 

Statewide, the infection rate is 30.68 per 100,000 people. Counties with rates more than double that rate are Marion, 63 per 100,000; Metcalfe, 68.1; McCreary, 82.1; Owsley, 84.1; Clinton, 85.3; and Russell, 92.5. 

Kentucky hospitals reported 969 Covid-19 patients, the first time that number has been below 1,000 since Nov. 2. A higher-than-usual share of them, 268, were in intensive care, and 132 of those were on ventilators, but all three metrics continued a downward trend. Only one hospital readiness region had 80% or more of its ICU beds filled: Lake Cumberland, at 88.9%

Beshear reported nine more deaths from Covid-19, all but one of them confirmed. That brings the state's death toll to 4,291. 

"There was a time when nine new deaths were tough to hear, and it's still tragic," Beshear said. "And again, if this is us moving in the right direction, we'd like to see a lot fewer than we've recently had to report."

In other coronavirus news Monday: 

• Today's fatalities were a Hancock County man, 78; a Hopkins County woman, 64; three Shelby County men, 73, 79 and 91; two Spencer County women, 73 and 84; and two Spencer County men, 73 and 88. 
• Counties with 10 or more new cases were Jefferson, 144; Fayette, 60; Madison, 36; Boone and Pike, 27; Warren, 24; Bullitt and Kenton, 23; Carter, 21; Daviess, 18; Campbell, 16; Whitley, 14; Jessamine, 13; Pulaski, 12; and Woodford, 10.
• In long-term care, there are 249 active resident cases and 187 active staff cases, with 12 new resident cases and 20 new staff cases announced today. Beshear attributed 15 more long-term-care deaths to Covid-19, bringing the total to 2,224. Mather said no facility in Kentucky has 15 or more active cases of the virus. Beshear said vaccinations there have helped.
• As kindergarten through second graders gear up for a return to in-person learning in Lexington, health-department officials say to get ready for entire classrooms to be quarantined at one time, Valarie Honeycutt Spears reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Most of Kentucky’s districts have resumed in-person schooling. As of Feb. 10, 160 districts are holding in-person classes, with 159 districts having students attend such classes two or more days per week, Kentucky School Boards Association officials said. 
• Daniel Desrochers of the Herald-Leader created a map showing where Kentucky's vaccine doses went in the first two months of distribution. Such data can have anomalies; the state sent 18,350 doses to Perry County, enough to cover 71.2 percent of the population, but health official in the region told Desrochers that all of the vaccine for the Appalachian Regional Healthcare system first goes to Perry County, which has an ARH hospital.
• Pop-up vaccine clinics in Louisville are reaching people "where they're at," Yetter and Sarah Ladd report for the Courier Journal. Dr. Edward Miller, diversity officer for University of Louisville Health, told the newspaper that one goal is to "ensure older people who might not be as adept at online sign-ups — or who might be wary of the new Covid-19 vaccine — have access to it in a familiar environment," they write. 
• More than 1,000 veterans received vaccinations at the Louisville VA Medical Center on Sunday, Joel Schipper reports for WDRB. 
• Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC director, told CNN that new cases of the virus have been dropping for weeks not because of vaccinations, but because people are following public-health rules. "It's what we're doing right: staying apart, wearing masks, not traveling, not mixing with others indoors," he said, adding later: "We've had three surges. Whether or not we have a fourth surge is up to us." 
• At least 32 million of the 142 million BinaxNOW rapid Covid-19 tests distributed by the U.S. government to states starting last year hadn't been used by early February, according to a Wall Street Journal review of inventories. As many of these tests approach their six-month expiration date, some states still have not used them due to "logistical hurdles and accuracy concerns," the Journal reports. Asked about it, Beshear said the tests have been "a tool in the toolbox" and have been used at long-term-care and corrections facilities, though they "weren't nearly as accurate" as the standard test.
• Tenants in all counties except Fayette and Jefferson can apply for rent and utility assistance to cover their past-due and future bills through the Healthy at Home Eviction Relief Fund at teamkyhherf.ky.gov. To apply in Fayette County: covid19renterhelp.org; to apply in Jefferson County: stopmyeviction.org. 
• For snow and ice updates and resources, visit snowky.ky.gov. For updates on roadway conditions, visit goky.ky.gov.

Beshear: Some local officials will enforce mask mandate, while others will only encourage; Fayette case backlog makes a record

Beshear wore a mask throughout the briefing and said in
reply to a question that doing so might be a good example.

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

Gov. Andy Beshear announced 2,398 new cases of the coronavirus Wednesday, by far a record, but not really; 1,472 of them were part of a backlog of cases from Fayette County; 926 were newly reported. 

"Even without the backlogged cases, we're on pace unfortunately to have another record week for the most cases," Beshear said at his daily briefing. 

Beshear said the state has helped the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department get its case data up to date, with an expectation that it will be maintained. This matters because the state's guidance for when it's safe for schools to hold in-person classes is based on the incidence rates in each county, so the numbers need to be current.

And just as the state has let local school districts decide whether they should hold in-person classes or not, Beshear is now asking local government officials to be the leaders in their communities when it comes to enforcing his mandate to wear masks, a proven way to slow the spread of the virus. 

Owsley County Judge-
Executive Cale Turner

Asked about his call that he had yesterday with mayors and county judge-executives, Beshear said Owsley County Judge-Executive Cale Turner, whom he did not name, "talked about how we all need to step it up, that it's serious and Owsley is in the red" zone for new cases. "So, it was good to hear what he was ready to do."

Beshear suggested that some mayors want some help in return. "I heard a little bit about some changes that I think we can make in code enforcement," he said. "Some cities have not been able to get people to cut their grass. That's something we ought to be able to deal with in the midst of this.

"But my sense is that everybody wants to do the right thing and is ready to do that encouragement. The real response will be what we see in our communities."

Beshear said Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley and he agreed "that people have gotten more casual about it, and I know he's ready to step up and do some of those same things that he was doing before. Hopefully we'll see in their own way every local leader trying to do their part.

"There may be some that feel more comfortable walking into some of their establishments and telling people, 'You really need to do this,' and there may be others that are willing to take stronger enforcement methods. Certainly in some of our larger cities, especially with bars, we need to see more direct enforcement." 

Health Commissioner Steven Stack reminded Kentuckians that as cases go up, so do hospitalizations, noting that in late September the state had about 380 hospitalizations a day, but as the cases have surged, so too have hospitalizations. 

Beshear said 672 people were hospitalized in Kentucky with covid-19 on Wednesday, with 161 of them in intensive care and 79 of those on ventilators. 

Seven states saw record hospitalizations from covid-19 on Oct. 6: Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, The Washington Post reports.

Stack, a physician, stressed that if Kentuckians will just follow the recommended guidelines, the case numbers will go down. 

"I do admit some puzzlement when folks say, 'So what are you going to do next? What are you going to mandate next?' I would say that we have very good guidance in place," he said. "The guidance is, wear your mask, socially distance, keep your hands clean, and you should also stay home if you are sick." 

The share of Kentuckians testing positive for the coronavirus in the past seven days is 4.21%. Stack said the the backlogged cases added today did not affect today's the positive-test rate, which is determined by test results from laboratories, not health departments.  

First Lady Britainy Beshear, who opened the briefing, said more than 40,000 masks have been donated to Kentucky schools through the Coverings for Kids program, and masks will continue to be collected through Oct. 30.

Before introducing the #MaskupKy social media segment of the briefing, she said, “Wearing a mask is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Right now, as we continue to see high case numbers, it is crucial to practice kindness to others, to set a good example by wearing a mask when you are out in public. It helps protect you and the people you care about."

The governor announced that five more Kentuckians had died from covid-19, bringing the state's death toll to 1,223. They were a 68-year-old man from Fayette County; an 80-year-old woman from Greenup County; a 65-year-old man from Harlan County; a 79-year-old man from Henderson County; and a 75-year-old woman from Whitley County.

Michael Reynolds

"We expect the next several weeks that these numbers will go up as the number of cases go up," he said.

Beshear honored the life of Michael Reynolds, a 58-year-old Louisville man who died Oct. 6 of covid-19. His niece, who was identified only as Ms. Fisher, asked the governor to tell his story to stress the seriousness of the virus. She said her uncle was a man who loved his family and friends, music, sports and shopping. "He was known for his sense of style and for always talking about his children, grandkids, fiancé and friends. He loved them all so much," she said in a letter to the governor.

In other covid-19 news Wednesday:

• With the backlogged cases, Fayette County had 1,510 new cases recorded on Wednesday.  Of those, 39 were newly reported today. Other counties with 10 or more new cases in the daily report were Jefferson, 191; Warren, 31; Hopkins, 30; Daviess, 28; Kenton and Laurel, 25 each; Bullitt and Scott, 21 each; Boone, Hardin and Henderson, 20 each; Knox, 16; Christian and Whitley, 15 each; Calloway, Pike and Shelby, 14 each; Franklin, Knott and Letcher, 13 each; Adair, Boyle and Todd, 12 each; Graves, 11; and Allen, 10. 
• In long-term care, 48 more residents and 22 more staff have tested positive for the virus, with 711 active resident cases and 440 active staff cases. The daily report shows 719 residents and five staff have died of covid-19.
• Beshear said at least 25 veterans have tested positive for the coronavirus at the Thompson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore. He said veterans and employees are being tested every 72 hours and being screened for symptoms daily. He said the facility has created a covid-19 unit and nine veterans have been transferred to the VA Medical Center in Lexington. 
• The K-12 student daily report and the college and university daily report will not have new numbers added until next week because the system is being automated. Click here for the K-12 dashboard.
• Kentuckians 18 and younger accounted for 358 of the newly reported cases, and 38 of them were 5 and under, Beshear's news release said. 
• Officials at Western Kentucky University have canceled spring break and will end the semester a week early, the Associated Press reports. The decision was made "in order to minimize the possibility of a covid-19 flare-up on campus," a school official said.
• Health Secretary Eric Friedlander said licensed day-care centers and certified and registered child-care programs will receive a one-time grant of $130 per child from federal relief funds, since many are struggling financially because of the closures and capacity limits placed on them because of the pandemic. He said the facilities received $225 per child earlier this year.
• Beshear said driver's license offices in Louisville, Elizabethtown and Prestonsburg are closed because of at least one positive covid test among employees. He acknowledged the inconvenience, but said it's important to do the right thing to protect other employees.
• “The White House has cleared the the Food and Drug Administration’s stricter standards for vaccine approval . . . after the FDA "unilaterally published the guidelines on its website," The Washington Post reports. President Trump had called the guidelines “political” and indicated that he might not approve them, but “Tired of the delay, the FDA circumvented the White House by publishing the criteria online as part of a briefing package for a meeting with its vaccine advisory committee that is scheduled for Oct. 22.”
• "A former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health titan who led the eradication of smallpox asked the embattled, current CDC leader to expose the failed U.S. response to the coronavirus, calling on him to orchestrate his own firing to protest White House interference," USA Today reports.
• Until a coronavirus vaccine is available, "The key to avoiding covid-19 is reducing one’s risk of infection as much as possible. Better sleep can help," National Geographic reports. It says sleep is a simple but solid way to bolster the immune system. 
• Doctors told Deborah Yetter of the Courier Journal that covid-19 patients in the Louisville area can get similar high-quality care and most of the same drugs received by President Trump for covid-19. The exception is the new, experimental "antibody cocktail" produced by Regeneron that Trump received, though Kentucky is about to launch its first clinical trial of the drug within days. Yetter expands on the use of the other two drugs used, Dexamethasone, a steroid, and Remdesivir, an anti-viral medication, which has been authorized for treating certain covid-19 patients, but is still awaiting final FDA approval. 
• Nine Eastern Kentucky health departments released covid-19 numbers on Tuesday and WYMT reports them. 
• As of Oct. 7, The Guardian and Kaiser Health News has profiled 224 health workers who have died from covid-19.Click here to read their stories. 

Hospitalizations and positive-test rates increase; daily cases fall, but 7-day average inches up; Beshear says deaths will rise

By Al Cross and Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

More Kentuckians are testing positive for the coronavirus and more of them are being hospitalized with its covid-19 disease, but state officials say the surge can be stopped if Kentuckians wear masks, keep six feet from each other and practice good hygiene.

“We are taking the type of aggressive action that should work if we can band together and get most Kentuckians wearing some form of facial covering, have that social distancing,” Gov. Andy Beshear said as he reported the daily numbers.

They included 603 Kentuckians hospitalized for covid-19, which appears to be a record, and 145 of them in intensive care, the most since the first month of the pandemic. Beshear said the share of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the last seven days was 4.92 percent, also the highest since those days, when tests were largely limited to people with symptoms.

"That is a concern, and it shows it's not just an increase in testing" that is driving up the case numbers, Beshear said. Becker's Hospital Review offers a list of states ranked by the average of positive results in coronavirus tests over the last seven days; Kentucky ranked 20th.

Beshear said he disagreed with Louisville health officials' advice that people there get tested only if they have symptoms. "I still think we have enough testing capacity," he said, while acknowledging that is is worried about that supplies of testing reagents will run short.

He reported 518 new cases, less than the average of the previous three days. A better indicator, the seven-day rolling average, rose by six, to 565.

The governor reported three more covid-19 deaths, but added, "I think we need to expect that we will see in the coming weeks a significant increase in that," due to the surge in cases. The fatalities were a 49-year-old woman in Simpson County, who Beshear said had underlying health conditions; a 69-year-old woman in Allen County and 81-year-old man in Webster County. They raised the death toll to 677.

Noting that the Republican governors of Ohio and Indiana issued mask orders like the one he issued July 9, the Democratic governor said, “This should tell you that the step we took was the right step,” and said it would make the regional response more effective.

Also, “It should show you that there’s no political division in what is the right public-health response,” he said. “We all agree that one of the most important things we can do right now is encourage people to wear facial coverings. . . .This’ll be the number-one thing to determine if we can keep our economy open and this will be the best tool to try to get our kids back into school.”

Health Commissioner Steven Stack said at least one Kentucky hospital has accepted a covid-19 patient from a sister hospital in Tennessee, where hospitals are filling up with them.

As for Kentucky's recent surge, Stack said, "Whether that turns into a little hill, relatively speaking, or a big mountain, is entirely dependent on the actions of Team Kentucky. We can blunt this curve just like we flattened the first one."

The first curve was flattened by shutting down most of the state's economy. The White House Coronavirus Task Force has recommended that the state close down bars and cut restaurants' capacity to 25 percent from 50 percent, but Beshear said he would do that "if we see a sharp uptick in cases." He and Stack reiterated that they hope to see masks having an effect on case numbers by next Tuesday.

Alluding to President Trump's new posture toward the pandemic, Beshear said, “I’m hopeful. We’re seeing a lot of people out there doing the right thing. We’re seeing a lot of other people coming around. We’re seeing people on the national stage wearing a mask and saying it’s patriotic.”

Rhonda King leaves the hospital. (Image from WLKY-TV)

As he has resumed daily briefings, Beshear has also returned to telling encouraging stories posted on social media. One Wednesday was that of Rhonda King of Louisville, who was in intensive care for three months, much of it on a ventilator in a medically induced coma, but went home Tuesday. Beshear said the story had several heroes, including the recovered covid-19 patient who donated blood plasma that King received and King's husband, who called her three times a day.

Other metrics: Two websites that estimate reproduction rates for the virus say Kentucky's rate is 1.23, meaning that every 100 infected people would infect 123 others. Epidemiologists like to keep the rate below 1.1. On Tuesday, Kentucky had the highest estimated rate, 1.37, on the Rt.live site, but it recalculates rates every day; it now says the rate has been 1.23 since July 12.

The CovidActNow site also estimates rates for counties with enough data; counties with estimated rates higher than the state rate are Oldham (site of a virus outbreak in a prison), 1.85; Harlan, 1.47; Jefferson, 1.25; and Ohio, 1.24.

Counties with more than 10 new cases on Wednesday's report were Jefferson, 215; Fayette, 41; Kenton. 37; Hopkins, 33; Boone, 23; Shelby, 22; Graves, 21; Adair, 19; Logan, 19; Warren, 19; Butler, 14; Jackson, 14; Campbell, 13; Edmonson, 12; and Grayson, 11.

Another prison: The federal prison near Manchester is the fifth correctional facility in Kentucky to have an outbreak of the virus. The Bureau of Prisons reported that 39 inmates and five employees were infected, and one inmate has recovered from an infection.

The prison "houses a daily average of 1,082 inmates ranging in age from 20 to 74, according to a federal audit conducted in February. It employs 277 people,"reports John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The 240-acre facility includes a medium-security prison that held 950 people in February and a minimum-security satellite camp that held 138 people."

In other covid-19 news Wednesday:

• Beshear reported that 31 more residents and 22 more staff in long-term-care facilities had tested positive for the virus, raising the respective totals to 2,276 and 1,243. Two more deaths raised that total to 451. "We do think that it’s stabilizing, but as long as we have covid-19 its going to be a fight," Beshear said.
• Five more employees and three more children attending child-care centers tested positive, raising the respective totals to 30 and 21. Beshear said 36 centers now have at least one case associated with them.
• Stack urged parents whose children need vaccinations to get them, and said people who need medical care shouldn't hesitate to seek it. "The hospitals are much better prepared now," he said.
• He said "a small number" of deaths previously listed as related to covid-19 have been taken off that list by a review committee. "We're committed to being honest and open and trying to be as credible as possible," he said. "They know a lot more about how to keep people safe."
• Beshear said economizing by state agencies means that the state won't end the 2019-20 fiscal year with a shortfall, but it will need help from the federal government to avoid record budget cuts of 13 to 17 percent in the fiscal year that began July 1. He said he will talk to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about it: "I think he knows how much we need this."
• Franklin County Public Schools will reopen Aug. 26 with "100 percent virtual instruction," Valerie Honeycutt Spears reports for the Herald-Leader. A separate article explores the pros and cons of school reopenings, and notes a study showing that school-age children can spread the virus just as well as adults, especially as they get older.
• WDRB provides a transcript from Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer at U of L Health, that addresses the recent spread of the virus, covering such topics as death rates, testing, long-term impacts of the virus and the effectiveness of masks. 
• WFPL has a Q-and-A transcript with a pandemic expert on mask orders and school re-openings. Dr. Gerald Keusch, citing studies to support his claim, said, "There’s no question in my mind that the universal use of masks in public spaces is an effective, simple, cheap behavioral tool. This is totally separate from the value of contact tracing and spacing, both things that are relatively easy to do and were neglected during our initial reopening. The problem is that, like everything on the public health side, we’re unprepared to do it effectively. These measures are all interconnected, and they all need to be in place to get this under control."
• Drew Altman of the Kaiser Family Foundation writes for Axios that over a 14-day period ending July 10, new cases in long-term care facilities rose by 18% across the 23 states, including Kentucky, for which data are available. His bottom line: "The lesson for long-term care facilities may be the same as the lesson for schools: There is no way to get a handle on coronavirus in one setting without first controlling community spread overall."
• Derek Thompson reports for The Atlantic about how long covid-19 immunity may last, saying a recent study showing it could be lost in months only looked at one part of the issue.

Ky. child-care centers welcome larger classes as Beshear appeals ruling against his limit and reports coronavirus cases in 13 centers

The state uses this chart to show how child-care centers can spread infection. Click on it to enlarge.

Gov. Andy Beshear and his health secretary strongly defended their restrictions on child-care centers, which have been set aside in a Northern Kentucky judge's order that they are appealing.

Beshear reported Friday that 15 staff members and seven children at 13 centers had tested positive for the coronavirus, and he mentioned several infants and toddlers who were among the record 426 new cases that the state identified Friday. "We've got a lot of kids under 5 in this report," he said.

Beshear said one argument by child-care centers in the lawsuit was "We weren’t seeing cases in day cares. Well, you know what? We are seeing cases in day cares."

A week earlier, Boone Circuit Judge Richard Brueggemann struck down Beshear’s limit of 10 children per class, returning the limit to the usual 28.

Melanie Barker, owner of Bowling Green’s ABC Children’s Academy, told John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader that she and other child-care operators will have to close without such relief.

Eric Friedlander, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, had a blunt reply to that at Beshear's press conference: "Some say they can’t make a profit. I’ll put the lives of Kentucky's children and families over profit every day, and that’s what we have to do."

Barker's main case to Cheves was this: “The governor ordered it where we couldn’t have more than 10 kids per group. . . . I had to divide the group, hire another teacher just for that group and build a wall across the room. And if you have 10 5-year-old kids but half of them don’t show up one day, you have to pay a teacher to watch five kids. You aren’t allowed to combine them with another class of 5-year-olds.”

Friedlander said that with the report of virus cases in 13 centers, "We want to be very careful about how we open." He said the state has tried to support the centers with federal relief money during the three months they were closed. He said more than 450 have not reopened, but "the vast majority have." 

However, Bradley Stevenson of the Child Care Council of Kentucky told a legislative committee Wednesday that 40 percent of the state's centers remain closed, mainly because of the 10-child limit.

Friedlander told the same committee that the limit was meant to make contact tracing easier in the event of a covid -19 outbreak at a daycare," Cheves reports. "With contact tracing, public health officials try to find the people exposed to someone who tested positive for the novel coronavirus to learn if they, too, are infected."

Stevenson told the committee that the number of child-care centers in Kentucky dropped from about 4,400 in 2013 to about 2,400 in 2019, "largely due to a loss of public child-care assistance funding," Cheves reports. "As of June, only 2,171 licensed child care centers remained in the state, with 165,314 slots available for children, Stevenson said." 

Stevenson told Cheves that surveys of center operators suggest that up to 15 percent of those that had to close might not ever reopen, which could mean the loss of slots for 25,000 children.

“The impact from covid-19 is going to have a very similar impact on the child care structure” as did the loss of public child-care assistance funds in 2013, Stevenson said. “If we go to half of where we are today, we are in a real crisis as it relates to the number of slots available to working parents throughout Kentucky.”

The Beshear administration is encouraging the centers to follow the 10-child limit while the ruling is appealed, Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley told Cheves.

Cases, hospitalizations and ICU cases jump; judge blocks limits on day-care centers; map rates risk based on recent cases

Interactive map rates risk on number of new cases in the last seven days. Click on it to enlarge.

Kentucky Health News chart shows data since the last time
hospitalizations were as numerous as they are now;
hospital data are not reported on weekends.

By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

Kentucky reported 299 new cases of the coronavirus Friday, one of the highest daily numbers yet, and four additional deaths, raising the state's pandemic death toll to 585.

Perhaps more worryingly, covid-19 hospitalizations in Kentucky rose to 455, and the number of those in intensive care rose to 99. Gov. Andy Beshear has said hospitalization numbers are more important than daily cases. He did not comment on the numbers in his press release.

Friday's fatalities were a 70-year-old man from Fayette County; a 107-year-old woman from Jefferson County; and two women from Shelby County, 89 and 91.

Counties with more than five new cases Friday were Jefferson, 43; Warren, 25; Fayette, 15; Daviess and Shelby, 13 each; Laurel, 10; Boone, 9; Oldham and Pike, 8; Christian and Kenton, 7 each; and Hardin, 6.

Several of those Kentucky counties stand out on a new, interactive map that estimates the risk that the coronavirus poses to every U.S. county, based on the number of new cases in the previous seven days.

The counties with "accelerated spread" at midday Friday were Fayette, Fulton, Gallatin, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, Clay, Shelby, Warren and Butler. Knox had the highest rate of new cases, 24.3 per 100,000 people.

The map, from the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, is color-coded but interactive, allowing users to see the data behind the colors, which are:

• Green: Less than one case a day per 100,000 people, and containment is on track. Use contact tracing and testing to monitor.
• Yellow: One to nine cases a day per 100,000 people, indicating community spread and the need for rigorous testing and tracing.
• Orange: 10 to 24 cases a day per 100,000 people, showing “accelerated spread,” and stay-at-home orders are advised
• Red: 25 or more a day cases per 100,000, meaning the county is at a “tipping point” and stay-at-home orders are necessary to contain the virus.

Judge rules against Beshear: A circuit judge in Northern Kentucky issued a statewide injunction Friday barring Gov. Andy Beshear and his administration from enforcing limits on sizes of groups of children at child-care centers.

Judge Richard Bruggemann's order also applied to automobile racetracks such as Florence Speedway, a dirt track that the state allowed to open but without spectators. The judge allowed it to open at half capacity.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron, originally a defendant in the suit but now a plaintiff, said in a press release, “While there is no doubt a need to protect public health during this pandemic, our Constitution expressly prohibits one person from controlling every aspect of life for Kentuckians. The statewide temporary restraining order issued today suggests the court shares our concern that the governor’s executive orders are arbitrary and violate the constitution.”

Beshear said he would immediately appeal. "This ruling is dangerous, and would lessen and eliminate important protections that numerous states are using to stop the spread of the coronavirus," he said. "An attorney general should protect people, not put their lives in danger."

"Attorney Chris Wiest, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said the judge's ruling averted a crisis given the day cares he represented were a month or two away from closing if Beshear had his way," the Courier Journal reports. "Those plaintiffs had taken aim at social distancing requirements in place for child care programs, specifically how groups of no more than 10 children must remain together all day without combining with another classroom."

In other covid-19 news Friday:

• A story in The Washington Post begins, "A strawberry daiquiri now, or school in the fall? A sun-soaked holiday weekend, or the college football season?
  "As the United States celebrates its birth as an independent nation, it finds itself at a crossroads in its encounter with the novel coronavirus. The pandemic, the worst in a century, has revealed rifts in the social fabric and dysfunction in institutions of politics and public health. Whether the country can withstand the onslaught of the virus may now depend on how many people are willing to forgo bustling barbecues and patio parties this weekend, which will prove fateful for the health and welfare of American society."
  “We have perhaps one more chance to get this right,” said Aileen Marty, an infectious-disease specialist at Florida International University in Miami.
• In a lighter vein, the Post shows how cartoonists have chronicled the battle between President Trump and people who wear masks.
• The Courier Journal reports how Beshear picked the 1,235 state-prison inmates to release due to the pandemic.