Beshear says he’s working on restaurant rules and limited child-care options for June reopenings; UK starts three clinical trials
Infection charts that Gov. Andy Beshear has used to illustrate the risk of reopening child-care centers
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By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News
Gov. Andy Beshear hit on a range of topics that included efforts to allow some child care in the next phase of reopening the economy, an adjusted out-of-state travel ban, and his drumbeat that relaxation of restrictions to fight the coronavirus doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still strive to be “healthy at home.”
“It is very important that as we talk about healthy-at-work and more opportunity, that we realize that we still need to keep our contacts as low as possible and the more that we are going to work and seeing other people there, the more we need to just come home afterwards,” Beshear said at his daily briefing.
One of the greatest challenges for many who are being asked to go back to work is what to do with their children, since day-care centers are not allowed to open in the first major phase of re-opening that begins Monday. Last week, Beshear showed charts to illustrate how reopening them would greatly increase the number of contacts each person would have, thereby increasing the risk of spreading of the virus.
Beshear said yesterday that unemployed people who can’t find child care won’t be required to follow an employer’s call to return to work.
Asked if summer camps, which are often used for child care, would be allowed to open in June, he they could not, but optimistically said maybe they could later in the summer, depending on how the virus goes.
“What we are working on in June, right now, is trying to find a child-care option that works,” he said. “Looking over at other states, most of them are either where we are, only for essential workers, or have been able to open up to a very limited amount of kids, and so we are working on that possibility right now.”
He said he hopes to announce a plan Friday for the reopening of restaurants, gyms, and movies, and “We’re trying to find a child-care option.”
Schools: Beshear is asking Kentucky schools to consider three options for beginning the next school year, ranging from late July to after Labor Day in September: perhaps as early as late July; a traditional start in early to mid-August; and a late start, perhaps after Labor Day.
Travel: Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that Beshear’s ban on out-of-state travel was not legal. Today the governor said he had issued a new order that mimics Ohio’s ban, which the judge said was legal.
The new order still bans anyone with a positive or preemptively positive case of covid-19 from entering Kentucky, unless ordered for medical treatment. It also keeps in place requirements of social distancing on public transportation, and a rule that arrivals in Kentucky to stay are asked to self-quarantine for 14 days.
“Basically, the court said, ‘We think Ohio’s is fine. We think yours should be more like Ohio’s’,” Beshear said. “So we’ve issued one today that’s exactly like Ohio’s. That’s what the court says will work; that’s what we’ll do.”
Health care: Health Commissioner Steven Stack noted that the second phase of health-care reopening has started, allowing outpatient and ambulatory surgeries and invasive procedures under strict guidelines.
Stack also stressed that just because Kentucky is beginning to relax some requirements, that does not mean it is safe for those highest at risk, including those who are over 60 or have chronic health conditions.
“All the statistics we have show that for people who are over 60, this is a bad disease and you are at highest risk,” he said “If you are in a vulnerable category, over 60 or have major medical problems, you have to pay particular attention to following all of these requirements, because as people begin to engage a bit more in society, as we try to find ways to relax restrictions, you have to take special safeguards to keep yourself safe.”
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that through May 5, about 28 percent of people older than 80 who had contracted the virus had died from it. For those in their 70s, the fatality rate is around 13%; for people in their 60s it is about 7%.
In other covid-19 news Wednesday:
- Beshear announced 159 new cases, for an adjusted total of 5,934, which he said leaves the state still on a plateau. He said that 351 covid-19 patients were in Kentucky hospitals, 190 of them in intensive care, and that at least 2125 infected Kentuckians had recovered. Click here for a daily summary that includes cases, deaths, race and ethnicity breakdowns, and county data.
- Counties with more than 10 new cases were Jefferson, 47; Warren, 23; and Kenton, 15.
- Beshear said that eight more Kentuckians had died of covid-19, for a total of 283. They included two women, 88 and 95, from Jackson County; a 72-year-old woman from Jefferson County; two women, 85 and 99, from Kenton County; two women, 57 and 63, from Muhlenberg County; and a 73-year-old woman from Russell County.
- In long-term care facilities, 14 more residents and 16 more staff members tested positive, for respective totals of 842 and 347; and eight more deaths, which Beshear said had been accounted for in earlier daily reports. The 158 resident deaths and two staff deaths, in 78 facilities, make up 56 % of the state’s covid-19 deaths.
- Kentucky’s testing capacity continues to increase. Beshear announced that 17,590 new tests had been completed, bringing the total to at least 78,603, or almost 1.8% of the state’s population. “The White House says we have to be able to test 2 percent of our population every month, and we’re ramping up to be able to hit almost three, but only if people sign up to get tested,” he said. Click here for a list of drive-thru testing locations.
- He said next week’s Kroger-sponsored test sites will be in Louisville, Lexington, Corbin and Elizabethtown, with more than 400 slots available at each daily. “Let’s not have any more no-shows,” he said. “Let’s get everyone tested.”
- The University of Kentucky‘s Markey Cancer Center, College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy are launching a clinical trial for experimental therapies to treat patients with covid-19. It will investigate three drugs that could inhibit the virus, either as stand-alone therapies or with the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, Elizabeth Chapin reports for UK Now.
- The trials are reserved for patients who have tested positive in the previous week, or who have symptoms but not severe enough for intensive care. Patients must also have at least one high-risk feature: hypertension, diabetes, cancer, lung disease; have an underlying heart condition; or be over 50. All must be over 18. They must also have the ability to return to UK HealthCare for repeated testing and observation.
- “The goal is to prevent patients from getting severe cases of the disease that would require hospitalization or put them in the ICU or on a ventilator,” said Dr. Zachary Porterfield, an infectious disease expert, virologist and assistant professor of medicine at UK. “No proven therapies have been demonstrated to prevent progression of covid-19 to severe illness.” Porterfield is co-leading the study with Dr. Susanne Arnold, a medical oncologist and associate director of clinical translation at the Markey Cancer Center.
- Beshear encouraged Kentuckians to register to vote, noting that the deadline for the June 23 primary election is May 26. He reminded Kentuckians that all would be able to vote by mail and a portal will soon be available to request a ballot. He said he had accepted the National Guard‘s offer to provide poll workers, since most of who usually do that are in the vulnerable age group.
- The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department is recommending that anyone who has worked at the Federal Medical Center prison since April 20 be tested for the virus because they may have been exposed during an outbreak at the facility, Stack said. Beshear said the U.S. Bureau of Prisons was not cooperating well with the department.
- “Covid-19 and a delayed income-tax filing deadline are walloping the Kentucky budget,” Jack Brammer reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. State Budget Director John Hicks said in a news release that April revenue receipts for the state’s General Fund dropped 33.6 percent, or $432.9 million, compared to April last year and April’s Road Fund receipts dropped by 30%, or $43.9 million.
- Jeremy Chisenhall reports for the Herald-Leader about the role of 9-1-1 operators during the coronavirus pandemic. “They call, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, I think I might have it’,” Jennifer Begley, who has been on the job for 22 years, said of patients. “And you’re like, ‘Well, hold on a second. We’ll get you some help.’”
- Bailey Loosemore reports in detail for the Louisville Courier Journal about the challenges around covid-19 testing in nursing homes. It is up to individual facilities to decide if they should test everyone, and while Beshear has said he would like all of the residents tested and testing has greatly increased, facilities “still cannot get enough tests or supplies.” She also notes the high cost of tests.
- The Midway City Council has voted to send each of the city’s 755 water customers $50 in vouchers that can be redeemed at local businesses as a way to stimulate the local economy, the Midway Messenger reports. The money comes from $40,000 that the city had budged for interest payments on the Midway station industrial and commercial park, which it ended up not having to pay. Mayor Grayson Vandegrift said he didn’t know of any other Kentucky city doing this.