FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Gov. Andy Beshear announced during his Friday press conference that Kentucky is up to 1,693 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 90 total deaths.
The 242 cases reported Friday is the most Kentucky has had in a single day. There've also been 11 additional deaths.
464 people have recovered, which is about 27 percent of the total cases.
With it being Easter weekend, Governor Beshear is urging everyone to stay home.
He mentioned that several churches have already canceled in-person services, but added that there are seven other churches that are still planning on holding a service.
This has forced Beshear to announce a new significant order that if a person goes to a mass gathering this weekend (i.e. church), that person's license plate will be recorded (state police presence in parking lots checking license plates) and the information will be given to local health departments. Local health officials with then go to that person's door with a 14 day self-quarantine notice.
"This will happen," said Beshear about the quarantine notice. "If somebody makes that decision [to attend in-person services or any other mass gathering], understand that this is the only way to ensure your decision doesn't kill someone else ... that your decision to go to a mass gathering doesn't negate the sacrifice every other house of worship, 99.9-percent in the state that are choosing to do the right thing."
The order only applies to in-person services, not drive-up services.
On Saturday morning, the Kentucky Republican Party issued a statement in response to the recent executive order:
“Governor Beshear's order for state police to stalk churchgoers and turn their information over to government agents is a blatant overreach. We all want to keep working together to fight the coronavirus, but this is the wrong approach. The Governor and his administration should retract this overbearing use of government power and come up with another way to work with churches to discourage in-person gatherings and help faith communities follow the proper CDC guidelines - without such draconian measures.”
Governor Beshear also said he hopes Congress will include hazard pay in its next coronavirus relief bill. He brought up the idea of using the CARES Act to provide hazard pay, but cautioned that they need to get guidance on how the money will be spent.
