FRANKFORT (LEX 18) — Gov. Andy Beshear announced during his Saturday press conference that Kentucky is up to 394 cases of COVID-19, up 92 from Friday.
This is the biggest jump in confirmed cases Kentucky has had, nearly doubling Friday's increase of 54 cases.
There was also one reported COVID-19 related death, a 66 year old female from Kenton Co., following Governor Beshear's briefing.
That brings the total to nine COVID-19 related deaths in Kentucky.
Governor Beshear also said that a one-year-old is one of the confirmed cases in Fayette Co., but he didn't have an update on the infants condition.
There has also been an estimate of 64 recovery cases out of the 302 confirmed cases on Friday.
Governor Beshear continued to stress the importance of social distancing, especially over the next few weeks.
He also addressed the reported large gathering that took place on West Broadway in Louisville Friday night.
“Folks we cannot have hundreds of people coming together in Louisville which the mayor talked about happening last night. If hundreds of people come together, several people are going to die because of it. That's what we are facing. We have to be better about facing that test of humanity,” said Governor Beshear.
Large gatherings of people has also been an issue in Lexington in the last few days, particularly at essential businesses such as hardware and grocery stores.
"If people aren't going to engage in social distancing themselves, these stores are going to have to force it," said Governor Beshear. "I'm open for them to provide different ways to do it. We cannot have our grocery stores or stores where you go to buy home goods to get through this... it can't be a way to frustrate the social distancing that we're doing."
The governor said that a major disaster declaration was approved by the federal government, which means FEMA will be able to cover a number of costs related to the pandemic.
Governor Beshear also announced that he signed an agreement with the Department of Labor that will increase the maximum weekly unemployment benefit by $600, and provide more funding to provide benefits to those who would not typically be eligible. There is also an increase in benefit weeks by 13. This means there will be a total of 39 weeks to receive the unemployment benefits.
The day-by-day numbers of cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky dating back to March 20 are listed below.
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
Here is Saturday's full briefing from the State Capitol:
