FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Governor Andy Beshear held his weekly “Team Kentucky” update on Thursday, and based on what he had to say, this team is losing badly right now.
“We set records this last week in hospitalizations, in Kentuckians in the ICU and in Kentuckians on a ventilator,” the governor said.
Just last month, Kentucky recorded more than 93,000 positive cases, with a positivity rate of greater than 13%. That was the second-highest total since the pandemic’s onset in Kentucky in March of 2020.
Beshear also offered the statistics that relate to infected children. Those too are discouraging having more than doubled since last August.
“I can’t imagine what it must feel like to look at your child needing a machine to help them breathe,” he said after noting that many children are also requiring stays in the ICU.
The Kentucky state Supreme Court stripped the Governor of some of his power to mandate certain protocols during this health emergency, so now he’s reliant upon General Assembly members, most of whom are political opponents, and have opposed his methods since the beginning. The governor hinted that a special legislative session could happen as soon as next Tuesday.
“We’ve been meeting around the clock with legislative leaders hoping to come to some common ground,” Mr. Beshear said. “It still remains to be seen what tools – and there are some tools that are a little controversial with some of the majority – they’d be willing to provide,” he said of any potential mask mandate.
Right now, more than 2.5 million Kentuckians have been vaccinated, which leaves 1.5 million unprotected. Many of them are children who aren’t eligible, but a good number is the adult population, which hospital officials say make up the highest percentage of their COVID-infected patients.
