FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Amidst the continued rollout of the Pfizer vaccine, Gov. Andy Beshear and the state's top health official, Dr. Steven Stack, urged Kentuckians Tuesday to remain vigilant in the battle against the coronavirus.
"You know what needs to be done," Dr. Stack said during the daily COVID-19 briefing. "As hard as it is, you need to only stay with people in your own household--all the way into the new year."
The latest update to the state's travel advisory reflects that message.
"Our new travel advisory is don't travel," Gov. Beshear said. "Right now, it's dangerous. Don't travel."
The Kentucky Department for Public Health revised its travel guidelines this week, discouraging "all out-of-state leisure travel until further notice."
The blunt warning comes on the heels of a meeting with Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, who visited Kentucky Tuesday.
"One of the things that she said loud and clear were the effects that we have taken, whether in the summer or now, have saved lives here in Kentucky," Beshear said. "That's one of the very first things she said to me."
But Beshear said Dr. Birx also cautioned that the latest surge of the virus in the country is more dangerous than any prior surge.
During the public briefing, Dr. Stack shared some of the key details from Dr. Birk's presentation, which outlined that the current surge is rising more rapidly, it's broader involving more counties simultaneously across the country, and it is longer in duration.
"It's that inaction now is so much more deadlier than inaction at other times in this virus because of how widespread it is," Beshear said, recounting his conversation with Dr. Birx.
