Beshear orders all in schools to wear masks, says he's willing to re-institute broader indoor mask mandate 'if necessary'

Governor's Office

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

Citing what his health chief called "the fastest and steepest rise of the entire pandemic" Tuesday, Gov. Andy Beshear issued an emergency order requiring masks for everyone over age 2 in schools, preschools, Head Start centers and child-care centers.

"We are to the point where we cannot allow our kids to go into these buildings unprotected, unvaccinated, and face this Delta variant," Beshear said, because the cases in early-opening schools show that "They will not get in-person learning, we will have massive quarantines, and we'll have parents that can't go to work."

Without a mask mandate, "We would be sending them to the deadliest version of a chicken-pox party imaginable," Beshear said, alluding to experts' belief that the variant is about as contagious as chicken pox, which is highly contagious.

Beshear noted that children under 12 can't be vaccinated yet, and Health Commissioner Steven Stack said only a third of Kentucky kids 12 to 17 have had at least one dose of a vaccine. Some Kentucky school districts have required masks, but at least two-thirds have not.

State Department for Public Health graph

Showing graphs of the recent steep increases in coronavirus cases, Covid-19 hospitalizations, intensive-care cases and mechanical ventilation, Beshear said that at the current rate of increase, without some intervention, the state would exceed previous hospital records within two weeks.

Beshear said some hospitals are already filling up and trying to find places to transfer patients. He has said that the hospital situation would be the key as he considers other measures to fight the virus.

"We won't be afraid, if necessary, to institute a statewide mask mandate for indoors outside the home," he said. He imposed such a mandate from July 2020 to June 2021.  

"There is no dispute, other than the junk and lies that people put on the internet, that masks work," he said.

Frankfort School Supt. Houston Barber said the mask mandate in his independent district "has been highly effective in the first two weeks of classes, with a limited number of cases and "no evidence of spread."

Beshear was asked how confident he is that schools will enforce his mandate. "Well, if they care one lick about their kids, they certainly will," he said. "If they claim to be educators, and every single public-health agency, from the CDC to their local health department has said it's the only way to stay in school, and otherwise you're gonna shut down businesses, they will."

Beshear also cited support from teachers' unions, all directors of district and independent county health departments, and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, whose top two officials appeared at his press conference.

"We have been through this cycle before," said Chamber Chair Winston Griffin, president of Laurel Grocery Co. in London. "It greatly impacts the commerce of this state." He said the ultimate solution is vaccination. "This thing is going the wrong way," he said. "Please get a vaccine."

Vaccinated people can catch the virus and spread it without knowing they have it, and they can develop the Covid-19 disease, but the great majority of cases in vaccinated people are mild. Beshear displayed a graph showing that the rate of new cases among the unvaccinated remains five times higher than among the unvaccinated.

Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey and Connecticut have also imposed school mask mandates.

Daily numbers: The state reported 2,500 more coronavirus cases, raising the seven-day average by 100, to 2,154, the highest since Feb. 6. The infection rate is 45.7 per 100,000 residents; counties with rates more than double that rate are Clay, 131.4; Webster, 106; Logan, 100.7; and Union, 94.4.

The share of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the last seven days is 11 percent, which Beshear said is the highest since Jan. 11, the height of the pandemic.

The governor said the worst figures of the day are from hospitals. Kentucky hospitals reported 1,251 Covid-19 patients, 339 of them in intensive care and 168 of those on mechanical ventilation. Those numbers have at least doubled in the past two weeks.

Noting the concern of a local health director whose intensive-care unit is full, Beshear said, "This is the most concerning thing I've been told since the pandemic began."

The state reported seven more Covid-19 deaths, raising the total to 7,394 and the seven-day average to 6 per day. Less than two weeks ago, the average was 2.7. 

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Beshear says Republicans at Fancy Farm should have taken 'one minute' from attacking him to promote vaccinations

Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles was the most outspoken. (Photo by Ryland Barton, WFPL)

Republicans at Saturday's Fancy Farm Picnic took several familiar shots at absent Gov. Andy Beshear's handling of the pandemic, but said nothing about vaccines, and Beshear called them out for it Tuesday.

“Anyone with a microphone, having an opportunity to speak to a statewide or regional audience, had an absolute duty to encourage vaccinations,” the Democratic governor told The Associated Press. “And the failure to do so continues to show putting politics above the very lives of our people.”

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Republican speakers at the event, including an announced candidate for governor and a likely one, "lambasted Beshear for his now-lifted restrictions on businesses and gatherings to combat the virus," AP's Bruce Schreiner reports.

The most outspoken was Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, who said Beshear “violated basic rights and individual liberties by becoming the shutdown governor. . . . Instead of building trust, he threatened us.”

Beshear's only declared foe, state Auditor Mike Harmon, said the governor overreached with his emergency orders that close many businesses, and said, “In 2023, the voters of Kentucky will have a chance to help Andy Beshear in the same way his policies helped many of them -- by sending him home.”

Those arguments “muddy the waters in ways that give people excuses not to get vaccinated,” Beshear told AP, which reports, "All the Republican speakers had to do was 'take one minute away from their personal ambition' and promote the shots, he said."

Asked for a response, Quarles said he has been vaccinated and has encouraged others to do so, a Quarles spokesperson told AP . "Harmon, who is fully vaccinated, said Monday he encourages people to get vaccinated, but said it’s ultimately a personal choice," AP reports. "Beshear hurt the vaccination push, he said, with a recent requirement that state employees wear masks while working indoors, regardless of vaccination status."

Some news reports said Beshear passed up the picnic because of concerns about the pandemic, but that was only implied, not explicit. Participating in the largely unmasked event might have made the governor look hypocritical, political reporter Lawrence Smith of Louisville's WDRB told Casey Parker-Bell of KET, which broadcast the speeches and several interviews Monday night.

Beshear was the target of another likely Republican candidate for governor, former United Nations ambassador Kelly Craft, who did not attend the picnic but spoke at a party dinner beforehand.

"She took a swipe at Beshear, without mentioning him by name," Schreiner reports. "She said that 'under the cover of this pandemic' he was 'shrinking our freedoms and assuming a greater and greater control over how we live.' . . . About 175 people gathered indoors for the Republican dinner Friday night, and few, if any, of them were wearing masks, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader."

Saturday, "With only 30% of county residents fully vaccinated, the Graves County Health Department also came out to the picnic grounds to offer free COVID-19 vaccines," Joe Sonka reports for the Louisville Courier Journal. "Only three people had taken them up on the offer by early that afternoon, which the department's director said was better than they expected."

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Covid-19 hospitalizations in Kentucky have increased by 400% in the last month, and have risen for 26 consecutive days

Ky. Health News graph, from initial, unadjusted daily reports; to enlarge, click on it.

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

The number of people hospitalized for Covid-19 in Kentucky has increased 400 percent in the last month, and has increased for 26 consecutive days. So has the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care, which has risen 387% in the last month.

Hospital numbers don't get as much attention as the numbers of new cases, but Gov. Andy Beshear has said that the number and seriousness of hospital cases will be more important as he considers possible emergency measures to thwart the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.

The state reported 1,301 new cases Monday, raising the seven-day rolling average to 2,054. That's more than 800% higher than it was a month ago. The seven-day infection rate is 43.83 per 100,000 residents; counties with rates more than double that were Clay, 134.2; Webster, 99.3; Logan, 95.4; Hart, 90.8; and Laurel, 90.2.

The report pushed the state's total number of cases above 500,000.

Covid-19 hospitalizations and intensive-care cases continued to increase at higher rates than new virus cases. Kentucky hospitals reported 1,139 Covid-19 patients Monday, 331 of them in intensive care and 158 of those on ventilation.

Deaths are beginning to increase. The state reported seven more Covid-19 deaths Monday, raising the total to 7,387. Over the last seven days, there have been 5.6 deaths per day; 10 days ago, it was 3.1.

The only encouraging statistics over the weekend were vaccinations. The state reported 21,665 doses reported Aug. 7, the most since June 17. That raised the seven-day average to 11,957, the highest since June 23.

The state has moved up in The Washington Post's forecast of when states will get 70 percent of adults vaccinated. At the current rate, that is now projected to occur at the end of this month. In mid-July, that wasn't expected to happen until early December. If the current forecast holds, Kentucky would be the 25th state to reach 70%.

Kentucky ranks ahead of all its border states except Illinois in the percentage of population that has received at least one dose of vaccine. It ranks just behind Ohio and Illinois in the percentage that is fully vaccinated.

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Most Kentucky school districts are not requiring masks

WFPL map

Nearly two-thirds of Kentucky school districts are not requiring masks in their buildings as the new school year begins, Jess Clark reports for WPFL in Louisville.

After surveying district websites and social media, Clark reports that "109 of Kentucky’s 171 school districts have said they will not mandate masks," while 26 will require masking indoors and eight will require it in some circumstances. "Four districts had yet to determine their policy, and two dozen districts had no information publicly available on their website or social media pages."

The federal and state governments have recommended, but not required, that masks be worn indoors by people who have been vaccinated for the coronavirus as well as those who have not been vaccinated. "Epidemiologists say, and research shows, mask mandates have been effective in curbing Covid-19," Clark notes. "Last school year Gov. Andy Beshear mandated masks across the state, including in K-12 settings, and he faced a political backlash. This year, he hasn’t issued a mandate."

Beshear said last week, “It sends a much more powerful message than us just doing it here from here in Frankfort,” but added that he would “watch the numbers” and that a mask mandate is “not off the table by any means.”

"Some parent groups are using social media to organize against local mask mandates," Clark reports. "The Facebook group Let Them Learn in Kentucky, which formed in 2020 to oppose remote learning during the pandemic, has nearly 15,000 members. Now that all districts are required to hold in-person classes, the group has pivoted to oppose mask requirements."

Mask mandates are more common in urban districts. In Knox County, in southeastern Kentucky, Clark reports that "teacher and parent Tammy Gray is frustrated that her district isn’t among those with mask mandates." She told Clark, “As a parent and as a teacher, my goal is to keep my children—and that includes my students — healthy. And if it takes wearing a mask, I’m all for it. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to protect these children. I just do not understand it.”

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Six substance-use treatment centers get $1 million each from feds

Six Kentucky programs to treat substance-use disorder will each get $1 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, established by Congress to reduce substance abuse and the illness and death it causes by easing residents’ access to treatment.

The $1 million grants are going to Baptist Health Corbin, Albany's Foothills Academy, Prestonsburg's Mountain Comprehensive Care Center, Morehead's St. Claire Medical Center, Northern Kentucky University and Westcare Kentucky of Ashcamp.

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National Health Center Week salutes federally qualified health centers, primary-care providers for one in eight Kentuckians

Map (click on it to enlarge) shows Kentucky Primary Care Association members, their health centers and counties where they have school-based clinics. Shading of counties shows congressional districts.

Aug. 8-15 is National Health Center Week, promoted by the National Association of Community Health Centers, the common name for federally qualified health centers, which get federal funds to provide affordable primary care in areas with a shortage of health-care providers.

Such clinics "are the primary health-care providers for one in eight Kentucky residents, which is more than 550,000 people," the Kentucky Primary Care Association says in a news release.

“We have 32 federally-qualified-health-center members providing primary care and other services with clinic operations across the state,” said David Bolt, the CEO of KPCA. “The health centers are located in medically underserved communities and treat patients regardless of the patients’ ability to pay, their race, or their ethnicity. CHCs improve healthcare access and outcomes.”

"Many CHCs operate school-based clinics," KPCA notes. "The clinics are located in elementary, middle and high schools around the state," with the largest group operated by Cumberland Family Medical Center in 16 counties, from Anderson in Central Kentucky to Barren, Monroe, Cumberland, Clinton and McCreary in Southern Kentucky.

"CHCs employee a large number of physicians, nurses, other medical professionals, and administrative staff," the release says. "Estimates indicate they generate more than $740 million each year for local economies in communities throughout the commonwealth.

To find a clinic near you go to: https://www.kpca.net/, click on the directory tab and choose the FQHC category.

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Study in Kentucky concludes re-infection with the coronavirus is 2.34 times more likely if you're not vaccinated than if you are

A new study, conducted in Kentucky during the two months before the Delta variant surge hit the state, says that if you have had the coronavirus and have not been vaccinated for it, you are 2.34 times more likely to get re-infected with the virus than someone who had it and was later vaccinated.

So says a study conducted by researchers with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department for Public Health, and published by the CDC Friday, Aug. 6.

They wrote, "Although laboratory evidence suggests that antibody responses following Covid-19 vaccination provide better neutralization of some circulating variants than does natural infection, few real-world epidemiologic studies exist to support the benefit of vaccination for previously infected persons. . . . To reduce their risk of infection, all eligible persons should be offered vaccination, even if they have been previously infected."

The researchers said they picked May and June for two main reasons: "When vaccination supplies were low, some previously infected persons were deferring vaccination for 90 days to allow never-infected persons priority for available vaccine; however, by May 2021, deferral for 90 days was no longer a reason for those infected in 2020 to remain unvaccinated. Second, although vaccination eligibility was initially restricted based on age, co-morbidities, and occupation," all Kentucky residents 16 and older became eligible for vaccination in early April.

The researchers acknowledged limitations of the study, including: Genomic sequencing was not used to confirm that reinfection was caused by the same variant of the virus as the first infection, and vaccinated people "are possibly less likely to get tested," so "the association of reinfection and lack of vaccination might be overestimated."

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