Every Thursday, Kentucky updates the color coding on its incident rate map, and this week Northern Kentucky counties Campbell and Kenton turned red, meaning they have a critical case load of COVID-19 (more than 25 cases per 100,000 residents).
Per the map, Campbell is reporting 27.5 cases per 100,000 people and Kenton is reporting 26.7 cases per 100,000.
“This is a type of outbreak where we can’t deny our way out of it, we can’t rationalize our way out of it, we can’t try to find excuses for not following the guidance,” said Gov. Andy Beshear during today’s press conference. “It is that present.”
Earlier this week, Beshear issued a series of new “red zone reduction recommendations” to help red counties get their infection rates under control. As of today, there are 68 red counties in Kentucky and 1,821 new cases of COVID-19 — the third-highest day ever; yesterday was the second-highest.
The nine new red zone reduction recommendations are:
- Employers allow employees to work from home when possible
- Non-critical government offices to operate virtually
- Reduce in-person shopping, order online or curbside pick-up
- Order take-out; avoid dining in restaurants or bars
- Prioritize businesses that follow and enforce mask mandate and other guidelines
- Reschedule, postpone or cancel public and private events
- Do not host or attend gatherings of any size
- Avoid non-essential activities outside of your home
- Reduce overall activity and contacts, and follow existing guidance, including 10 steps to defeat COVID-19
These recommendations take effect starting the week after a county goes red — on Monday — and continue for the rest of that week. They are in addition to existing guidance regarding school attendance, sports and long-term care facility operations in red counties.
The new suggestions are not mandates, Beshear has said, just putting personal responsibility and ownership on the individual to help control the spread.
“We have a lot of mandates already on the books,” he said during today’s briefing. “We have significant and more aggressive mandates in place than any of our neighbors when you look at their totality.”
“I put all these in place because they were at the request and advice of public health experts,” he said, adding, “Our goal (with the) red county reduction recommendations is to truly amp up compliance and do it all at the most effective and efficient time.”
With a 1.4% current mortality rate in the Commonwealth, Beshear said, “Our plan has to be to lessen the overall spread and to do it together.”
“Every day you get up and put on a mask, you save lives. Every day you follow the guidance, you save lives. If you are a red county, when you follow what we need you to do and the recommendations, you are going to save lives,” he said.
“I hope we continue to have the strength to want to save lives around us.”
This article appears in The Fall Guide.