FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Governor Andy Beshear announced that there are 2,429 COVID-19 cases and 129 coronavirus-related deaths in the state of Kentucky.
One of the 159 new cases from Thursday includes a 10-day-old baby from Lincoln Co.
Governor Beshear expects the state to see it's highest one-day increase based on the increase in testing on Friday.
Another announcement made was the addition of four more drive through testing locations across the state. These sites include: Madisonville, Paducah, Somerset and Pikeville.
"[The cities] are open to all of the contiguous counties or even the region in Kentucky," said Beshear. "We want to make sure that we push people to sign up, and go ahead and start signing up as we end today and going to Tuesday."
"This is exciting, as we're able to build up our capacity." added Beshear. "Now what we will expect to see are more cases. We ought to be ready for that, we know they're out there. But as we build up this capacity, it's certainly going to help us as we move into what the new normal will be."
These locations will be available April 21st-April 24th (Tuesday-Thursday) from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
These four drive through locations join Frankfort and Kenton Co. as the six total drive through locations in the state.
The state plans to have 330 tests per day, per location for the four additional sites.
On Wednesday, Governor Beshear announced he and the governors from Ohio and Indiana teamed up to work together to come up with a plan of easing back into the opening of businesses in the state.
On Thursday, Beshear said that plan has expanded to Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
"What this makes sure is that these midwestern economies and many of our bordering states is that we are all in very significant coordination to help us not only make sure that we don't have an additional later spike, but also that one state's contacts don't come into another," said Beshear.
Governor Beshear also said there has been a partnership between local health officials and local parks officials to Lake Barkley State Park and Lake Cumberland State Park.
This will allow infected people to isolate at the parks.
