State records 58 Covid-19 deaths today, a record, but Beshear cites state’s low death rate, says more masking may be helping
Gov. Andy Beshear, at top near right, and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, at bottom near left, in a vaccination video with counterparts in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
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By Melissa Patrick
“Take 1 percent of however many cases that we have in a week, and we can expect to have that many deaths three to four weeks afterwards,” he said. “It means what we don’t do has real consequences. And thus far, it’s had at least 3,301 consequences, and that’s not even taking into account long-term health effects that we may not see.”
Beshear said he was pleased with the decline in cases and praised Kentuckians for what he said seemed to be an uptick in the number of people wearing masks.
Peggy Lynn Davis |
Beshear honored the life of Peggy Lynn Davis of Ashland, a 67-year-old health-care worker who died Friday of Covid-19. She is survived by her husband, Robert, her three sons, Bobby, JP and Wesley, and her three grandchildren.
- The 58 fatalities were an Adair County woman, 99; an Allen County woman, 78; an Allen County man, 64; a Boone County woman, 68; a Caldwell County man, 84; a Campbell County woman, 83; a Carroll County woman, 82; a Carter County man, 72; two Daviess County women, 45 and 82; four Daviess County men, 76, 84, 89 and 92; two Fleming County men, 76 and 81; two Floyd County women, 77 and 91; a Franklin County woman, 89; a Gallatin County woman, 82; a Gallatin County man, 69; a Grayson County man, 71; a Hancock County man, 66; a Hardin County man, 77; a Harlan County woman, 67; a Harlan County man, 64; a Hart County woman, 94; a Henderson County man, 61; a Hopkins County man, 84; seven Jefferson County women, 73, 78, 78, 79, 81, 84 and 91; four Jefferson County men, 31, 64, 88 and 92; three Kenton County women, 75, 77 and 78; a Kenton County man, 85; a Lewis County woman, 89; a Logan County man, 79; a McCracken County man, 93; a McCreary County man, 72; a McLean County man, 88; two Marshall County women, 60 and 91; a Martin County man,73; a Monroe County man, 73; an Ohio County woman, 80; an Oldham County man, 73; a Trigg County woman, 46; a Trigg County man, 86; and a Wayne County woman, 73.
- Counties with more than 10 new cases were Jefferson, 604; Fayette, 230; Kenton, 162; Boone, 143; Hardin, 129; Warren, 126; Daviess, 125; Madison, 112; Campbell and Nelson, 79; Christian, 78; Laurel, 77; Pulaski, 74; Bullitt, 64; Franklin, 58; Oldham, 57; Barren, 52; Scott, 49; Henderson, 48; Jessamine and Knox, 46; McCracken, 44; Boyd, 42; Pike, 40; Shelby, 39; Meade and Whitley, 37; Calloway, 35; Grayson and Montgomery, 34; Marshall, 33; Harlan and Washington, 26; Rowan, 25; Logan, 24; Breckinridge and Graves, 23; Hopkins and Wayne, 22; Clay and Russell, 21; Hart and Ohio, 20; Bell, Boyle, Clark, Larue and Woodford, 19; Taylor, 18; Floyd, Letcher, Marion and Union, 16; Anderson, Carter and Green, 15; Bourbon, McCreary and Todd, 14; Adair and Casey, 13; Carroll, Garrard and Perry, 12; and Bath, Bracken, Estill, Johnson, Morgan and Trigg, 11.
- Kentucky hospitals reported 1,604 patients with Covid-19 Thursday, 395 of them in intensive care and 209 of those on ventilators.
- In long-term-care facilities, there were 76 new cases among residents and 55 in staff, for a total of 1,009 active resident and 521 active staff cases. Beshear said the state does not have data on the percentage of long-term-care staff who have agreed or declined to be immunized, but would check with Walgreens and CVS for that data.
- Chris Larson of Louisville Business First explores the challenge of getting staff in long-term home facilities vaccinated for the coronavirus, noting that some facilities are requiring staff to get vaccinated and others are offering incentives. Betsy Johnson, the president of Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities, told Larson that she hears that most facilities are offering incentives for their employees to get vaccinated, and that there is a real concern about those who are requiring it. “Workforce has always been a concern of ours,” Johnson said. “We’ve been very vocal about that. … This workforce issue is at a crisis point. So, if you start dealing with the issues with sticks and that means you’re going to punish people through termination… there’s a concern they would just quit.”
- As part of a state broadband initiative, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman is asking every Kentuckian to take a free, anonymous internet speed test at ewdc.ky.gov/Initiatives/Pages/KBI.aspx before Feb. 18. The test will help the state see which areas don’t have access to the internet and which don’t have adequate internet speed, information needed as the state moves forward with its next phase in the initiative. People without home wi-fi access are asked to visit a location that offers free internet, to submit notice that their home address has no available service.
- President Joe Biden signed several executive orders dealing with many aspects of the pandemic, The Washington Post reports. “They include the creation of a Pandemic Testing Board that can spur a surge in the capacity for producing coronavirus tests.” Other orders will spur research of treatments for covid-19; strengthen collection and analysis of data to inform the government’s response to the crisis; “and direct the federal occupational safety agency to release and enforce guidelines to protect workers from getting infected. Other aspects of the plan are intended to steer more money to states, which have complained they need more funding to carry out the work placed on them for testing, vaccinating residents and other functions,” the Post reports.
- Unauthorized sharing of the University of Kentucky’s vaccine invitations leads to a “few hundred” people signing up improperly, Rick Childress reports for the Herald-Leader. UK officials told Childress that those who sign in without an invitation will be removed from the system.
- Kentucky High School Athletic Association Commissioner Julian Tackett said that nearly one in four high school basketball games in Kentucky being canceled so far this season because of the virus is good news, because that means schools are following the guidance, Jason Frakes reports for the Louisville Courier Journal.
- Beshear and Coleman joined governors and lieutenant governors of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin to encourage people to make a plan for how they can get the coronavirus vaccine once they are eligible. Watch the 2 minute 14 second video message from the governors here: https://youtu.be/Ub35zJ2NEFw.