Latest daily report takes Ky. into a 'red zone' of White House task force, which has suggested the state shut bars, limit restaurants

KHN chart; daily numbers may be adjusted after initial report.

Kentucky has entered a "red zone" of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which the group uses as tripwires to suggest increased or restored limits on activities.

The state did that by recording 797 new cases Friday, the second highest daily count. That brought its seven-day total to 4,951, well above the previous day's rolling average of 4,154.

And that took the seven-day average above the task force's definition of a state in a red zone: one with more than 100 weekly cases per 100,000 population. That equals 1,000 cases per million; Kentucky's estimated population is 4.468 million, so its threshold is 4,468 cases per week.

The state entered the red zone on the day that Gov. Andy Beshear said that if the surge didn't abate over the weekend, as he hopes it will due to the mask mandate he imposed two weeks ago, he will have to impose more restrictions. Two steps that the task force has recommended, but that he has not adopted, are closing bars and reducing restaurant capacity to 25 percent from 50 percent. He has said he would also consider other restrictions.

The state is faring better on the task force's other red-zone metric: the seven-day average of positive coronavirus tests. If a state goes over 10 percent, it goes into the red zone. Kentucky's figure Friday was 5.28%, about double what it once was, but the first time it exceeded 5%. Beshear has used an even higher positive-rate threshold, 15%, to designate states to which Kentuckians should not travel, and if they do, quarantine for two weeks upon their return.