As of Wednesday afternoon, the NKY Health Department says 30 additional cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Northern Kentucky, for 336 total cases. There was one new death, an elderly Kenton County resident, bring the total deaths in NKY to 28.
There are 174 cases in Kenton County, 59 cases in Campbell County, 88 cases in Boone County and 15 cases in Grant County.
Governor Andy Beshear said there were 196 new cases in Kentucky and 14 new deaths. That brings state totals to 3,373 cases and 185 deaths.
At least 1,311 people have recovered from COVID-19 in Kentucky.
“We want that number to keep going up each and every day,” Gov. Beshear said.
To date, at least 36,075 people have been tested. At least 1,105 people have ever been hospitalized with 301 currently hospitalized.
At least 564 have ever been in the ICU with at least 161 people currently in the ICU
Restarting the economy
The good news is that a phased restart of Kentucky’s economy will begin next week — on Monday — with a segment of the health care services industry.
The Governor said initially the easing of restrictions will allow for diagnostic and radiology testing, as well as non-urgent, emergent, in-person office and ambulatory visits.
“We are very close to coming to a consensus and an agreement in being able to put out guidelines for the gradual reopening of many of our hospital and health care services,” Gov. Beshear said. “We will be moving from this phase to others. Health care is a good and important place to start some of our reopening.”
The Governor said Kentucky will go through three phases in dealing with coronavirus: sacrifice, planning and patience and perseverance. The Governor said now we are in the planning and patience phase.
“Whether it is shuttering a business temporarily, or if it’s that you’re not going to work right now because of what has happened with this virus,” he said. “Whether it is changes to your life, your children not going to school, we have shown that we can pass the test of sacrifice.”
The Governor said the phased health care services reopening is the first under the Healthy at Work initiative he introduced Tuesday to help businesses reopen 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.
Gov. Beshear said a foundational basis for safely reopening the economy requires a massive scaling up of testing capacity in the Commonwealth.
As announced by Governor Beshear during his daily press conference, testing capacity is increasing across Kentucky. While testing is an important tool in our fight against COVID-19, we must also take steps to prevent the need for a COVID-19 test in the first place.
According to Dr. Lynne Saddler, District Director of Health, “By keeping a distance of at least six feet from others, washing hands often, covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue, and avoiding contact with people who are sick, we are preventing the spread of COVID-19. This also decreases the likelihood we will get sick with COVID-19 and need a test.”
For more data on COVID- 19 infections in Northern Kentucky, please visit the NKY Healthwebsite.
