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COVID Update: NKY has 10 new cases; KY has 87 cases, 5 deaths; you’ll need to wear masks


As of Monday afternoon, 10 additional cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Northern Kentucky, for 420 total cases. There are 210 cases in Kenton County, 79 cases in Campbell County, 114 cases in Boone County and 17 cases in Grant County. There have been 28 total deaths related to COVID- 19.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced in his daily briefing 87 new cases and 5 new deaths, bringing the state’s totals to 4,146 cases and 213 deaths.

Kentucky took the first step in reopening its health care industry Monday.

Gov. Beshear and Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner for the Department for Public Health, outlined a four-phase structure to gradually bring more health care services back online.

This phased reopening of health care services is the first step under the Healthy at Work initiative the Governor introduced to help businesses restart operations safely when the time is right. The initiative set out public health benchmarks for reopening Kentucky’s economy. These benchmarks closely follow the White House’s Guidelines for Reopening America.

Under Phase 1, health care practitioners can resume non-urgent/emergent health care services, diagnostic radiology and lab services in:

• Hospital outpatient settings;
• Health care clinics and medical offices;
• Physical therapy settings, chiropractic offices and optometrists;
• Dental offices (but with enhanced aerosol protections).

This initial Phase 1 does not apply to long-term care settings, prisons and other industries or other settings, nor does it apply to elective surgeries or procedures.

Phase 2 is set to begin Wednesday, May 6. At that time, outpatient surgeries and other invasive procedures can resume, though hospital and care facilities will have to meet strict guidelines.

Phase 3 is scheduled to start Wednesday, May 13. Hospitals and care facilities can begin doing non-emergency surgeries and procedures at 50% of their pre-COVID-19-era patient volume.

Officials want the final stage, Phase 4, to begin Wednesday, May 27. At that point, most of the restrictions on types of procedures and volume will be left to the facilities to determine. However, oversight and guidelines meant to ensure that capacity remains in the system will continue.

Dr. Stack emphasized that this is a phased, gradual reopening of services and that any COVID-19 resurgence may require adjustment. For full guidance on criteria for reopening and new best practices, click here. The Governor added that more industry reopening dates would be announced soon.

Contact tracing

Until there is a vaccine or an effective treatment method, things will look and be different, the Governor said. A significant new infrastructure will be needed, and the state is preparing to hire more than 700 people across the state to help with contact tracing. A request for proposals will be issued this week to support the state with infrastructure and staffing.

Click image for CDC information on masks.

Masks
The Governor said that by May 11, everybody working for an essential business that is reopening should be wearing a mask. Going to the grocery, into any place of business or any place where social distancing of keeping at least six-feet apart might be broken, the Governor said every Kentuckian should be wearing a mask.

Safe dentistry reopening

Dental offices may reopen under Phase 1, provided they follow certain protocols and have the proper equipment to do so. The Board of Dentistry, along with the Kentucky Dental Association, Kentucky Dental Hygienists’ Association and a number of other groups have developed the following guidelines for safely operating dental offices under Phase 1.

Unemployment payments

The Governor said Kentucky was making great strides in addressing an unprecedented wave of unemployment insurance claims.

Nearly 283,000 claims from March have been processed, and an additional 149,000 March and April claims will be processed tonight. He also said of those, 150,000 first-time payments went out Monday. About 30,000 claims from March will be paid this week. He said if you filed in March and still have not been paid, a new hotline will be announced tomorrow just for these Kentuckians.

“Our goal is to get through those last March claims this week,” Gov. Beshear said. “If you filed in March and you haven’t received anything yet, I’ll be darned if we are not going to get it done this week.”

As plans for reopening are being developed, we all need to become comfortable with the idea of wearing cloth masks in public. While wearing a cloth mask does not replace all of the other things we must do to prevent the spread of disease, such as washing hands often, not touching our faces, frequent cleaning and disinfecting, and physically distancing ourselves, it is an important tool we must use, according to Dr. Lynne Saddler, District Director of Health.

“Wearing a cloth mask in public settings where it can be difficult to maintain social distancing, such as grocery stores, can help people who may have the virus and do not know it from spreading it to others,” said Dr. Saddler.

If we all wear a cloth mask in public, we keep others safe as they keep us safe, and that helps us move closer to reopening businesses, she said.

For more information on how to properly wear cloth masks, as well as make one at home, please click here.

For more data on COVID-19 infections in Northern Kentucky, please visit the NKY Health website.


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One Comment

  1. Traci Hodge says:

    Amazing after all this time even during the so called PEAK we were all told wearing masks was only necessary for medical professionals who were right in others faces. This has been here in this country at least since January and more than likely before that…it’s a bit late to be worried about masks now.

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