FRANKFORT (LEX 18) — Gov. Andy Beshear announced during his Sunday press conference that Kentucky is up to 439 cases of COVID-19, up 45 from Saturday.
No additional deaths were reported as of 4:00p.m.
He called this an encouraging update overall, after 92 new cases were confirmed in the Commonwealth on Saturday.
Governor Beshear said an estimated 5,500 people have been tested for COVID-19 in Kentucky, with more than 400 of those tests coming back positive.
Governor Beshear did talk about the concerns of overcrowding at grocery and hardware stores this weekend as well as local parks.
“We can’t let a state park, we can’t let a basketball court, we can’t let a grocery store become a place where we violate our social distancing rules and ultimately spread this virus," said Beshear.
He added that these businesses and parks need to take steps to make sure customers are social distancing.
"We’re going to have to ask those stores to find a way to enforce social distancing or we’re going to have to see how essential they are," said Beshear. “We can't allow any crowds in Kentucky right now, so we're going to ask our mayors and our county judges, and we as a state are also going to be sending folks out that where social distancing is not being followed, we are going to have to close golf courses and other places like this down. We don't want to have to do this."
Dr. Stack with the state health department also chastised some churches in Graves County that are reportedly having services, and a man in Mercer County who went to get tested but now is not complying with local health officials regarding quarantine.
March 20 - 63 confirmed cases
March 21 - 87 confirmed cases
March 22 - 103 confirmed cases
March 23 - 124 confirmed cases
March 24 - 163 confirmed cases
March 25 - 198 confirmed cases
March 26 - 248 confirmed cases
March 27- 302 confirmed cases
March 28 - 394 confirmed cases
March 29 - 439 confirmed cases
Here's Governor Beshear's full briefing from the State Capitol on Sunday
To combat guideline noncompliance, Gov. Beshear set up the COVID-19 Reporting Hotline (833-597-2337) as well as an online portal, kysafer.ky.gov, for Kentuckians to report problems.
