Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced on Tuesday the most daily confirmed COVID-19 cases ever, along with the most deaths reported in a single day.
There were 4,151 new cases of coronavirus, 461 of which are children with most of them of school age. Beshear emphasized the exponential growth of COVID-19 cases the state is experiencing, with the state’s test positivity rate at 9.59%, the highest since March 5.
There is a record number of people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in Kentucky at 1,777. There are 441 people currently in the ICU, along with 241 on ventilators.
The counties with the highest number of cases reported Tuesday include Jefferson County with 700, Fayette County with 238 and McCracken County with 172.
Beshear reported 35 new deaths.
“These individuals are real people that are loved by the people around them,” he said.
Of the record number of daily cases, there are 173 new residents and 109 new staff in long-term care facilities that reported testing positive, along with 18 new deaths. Kentucky has 57 long-term care facilities with 15 or more active cases, testing workers as many as three times a week.
Beshear said the community response against the virus “is not where it needs to be.”
There are currently more than 358 testing locations across Kentucky. Beshear said getting tested is among the “necessary public health steps to defeat this virus.”
The governor also announced $50 million in CARES Act funding is being released for local governments that have exhausted initial allotments for COVID-19 expenses.
As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, Kentucky received 2,650 applications, with a total requested amount of $25.6 million so far for COVID-19 assistance for restaurants and bars impacted by new restrictions. Beshear said the state would go through applications quickly until the relief fund set aside for restaurants and bars is exhausted.
Mark Carter with the state Department for Public Health, who’s leading contact tracing efforts in the state, said there are currently 1600 contact tracers in the state, a significant increase from an original amount of 430 people.
