As cases surge, Beshear defends new COVID-19 restrictions

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky’s healthcare system could be at risk — and lives at stake — from rising pressures of new coronavirus hospitalizations if conditions do not improve, Gov. Andy Beshear warned Monday, defending the new mandates he issued last week to fight the pandemic.

“What happens if we doubled in two weeks on a system that is already facing these problems? The answer is not only more people die, but more people die than they have to,” he said at a virtual news briefing.

The Democratic Governor’s new restrictions on in-person gatherings at restaurants, schools and event venues have drawn criticism from GOP lawmakers, local business owners and private schools throughout the state. Kentucky’s Republican Attorney General, Daniel Cameron, joined a Christian school on Nov. 20 in filing a federal lawsuit that seeks a statewide temporary restraining order against a new rule that suspends in-person classes in private and public schools.

Under the new restrictions, middle and high schools are required to continue with remote instruction until January. Elementary schools may reopen on Dec. 7 if the county they are located in is not in the “red zone,” the highest category for COVID-19 incidence rates.

“The governor’s school-closure order prohibits religious organizations from educating children consistent with and according to their faith,” Cameron, said in a release. “The ability to provide and receive a private religious education is a core part of the freedoms protected by the First Amendment.

Beshear called the decision to close schools to in-person learning a “last result,” expressing concern for teachers going to work as more students test positive for the virus. Last week, he said that roughly 10,000 students were in quarantine.

The state Supreme Court upheld the governor’s authority to issue coronavirus-related mandates in an unanimous ruling on Nov. 12, a loss for Cameron’s effort to overturn Beshear’s restrictions on businesses and individuals.

Kentucky continued setting records with 2,135 new confirmed coronavirus cases reported, the state’s highest daily number on a Monday since the pandemic again. The state also reported five virus-related deaths, raising the death toll to 1,792.

The state’s test positivity rate is 8.97%, down slightly from last Friday. The positivity rate is an indicator of the extent of the spread of the virus, according to the World Health Organization. If the rate is less than 5% for two weeks and testing is widespread, the virus is considered under control.

Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, urged Kentuckians to not travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, contending that multiple-household gatherings were “a sure recipe for disaster.”

“Recent models show that just for Jefferson County and 14 surrounding counties, if we had complete compliance with new requirements we could prevent almost 1,000 additional deaths by mid-January,” Stack said. “Even with low compliance, 513 deaths would be prevented.”

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up within weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal. The vast majority of people recover.

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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/virus-outbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

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Hudspeth Blackburn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.