As of Wednesday afternoon, 32 additional cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Northern Kentucky, for 480 total cases, reported the NKY Health Department. There are 245 cases in Kenton County, 86 cases in Campbell County, 129 cases in Boone County and 20 cases in Grant County. There have been 34 total deaths related to COVID-19.
Gov. Andy Beshear said in his daily briefing there were 184 new cases and 10 new deaths, for a total 4,539 coronavirus cases in Kentucky and 235 deaths.
The Governor unveiled a tentative reopening schedule for a variety of businesses allowed to resume operations. However, he cautioned that in all cases, it will not be business as usual and will require adherence to the 10 rules to reopening, along with industry-specific requirements.
“We’ve got to do this right. I believe we can do this right,” Beshear said. “When we phase back in to work, remember, you don’t need an in-person meeting. Use the telephone. And now that we are starting to open up health care, see your doctor if you need to.”
This week, Kentucky began the phased reopening of health care services as the first step under Beshear’s Healthy at Work initiative, which set out public health benchmarks for reopening Kentucky’s economy. These benchmarks closely follow the White House’s Guidelines for Reopening America.
On Wednesday, Gov. Beshear said that as long as Kentucky keeps up the fight against the coronavirus with promising results, the following business sectors are in line to restart:
May 11 – Manufacturing, construction, vehicle and vessel dealerships, professional services (at 50 percent of pre-outbreak capacity), horse racing (without spectators), pet grooming and boarding
May 20 – Retail, houses of worship
May 25 – Social gatherings of no more than 10 people, barbers, salons, cosmetology businesses and similar services.
“We were able to come to an agreement yesterday with Churchill Downs. They will start accepting horses and people on the backside of the track May 11,” said Beshear.
He said that for May 20, houses of worship would be allowed in-person services at a reduced capacity and that everything is contingent on being able to do social distancing, cleaning, sanitation and other accommodations.
“A crowd is still going to be a dangerous thing until we are further along in defeating this virus,” Beshear said. “It’s something we need to continue to avoid.”
Not reopening yet
The Governor said that a couple of industries and businesses are not quite ready to open, which include restaurants, gyms, movie theaters, campgrounds, youth sports, summer camps, daycares (except for essential health care workers) and public pools.
“Another that we want to be in Phase 2 is gyms. Later, but not in Phase 1: movie theaters, campgrounds and youth sports. We hope in this summer, and we don’t know if it will be in June or perhaps early July, we hope that we will be able to do some youth sports,” the Governor said.
Healthy at Work reopening process
During the Healthy at Work phases, the Department for Public Health will evaluate individual businesses’ ability to safely reopen. Industry groups and trade associations are encouraged to communicate with and gather input from their membership to develop and submit reopen proposals on behalf of their members. Individual businesses may submit via the online reopen form. All proposals will be evaluated according to White House guidelines and other public health criteria. This step will ensure that Kentucky businesses are able to comply with public health protocols and CDC guidelines.
Emergency Management Center
Beshear delivered Wednesday’s news conference from the Kentucky Emergency Management Center in Frankfort. He emphasized the work the center is taking on in organizing efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic and introduced Michael Dossett, director of the division of Emergency Management.
“We are currently at Level 3 for this operation. We have about 100 people working this incident seven days a week,” Dossett said. “In this event, we are in support of the Governor, Department of Public Health, the Kentucky National Guard and every Cabinet in state government is represented here at the Emergency Operations Center. We are supporting all 120 counties with managing resources they need during this pandemic event.”
For more data on COVID-19 in Northern Kentucky, please click here.
