Kentucky’s escalation in COVID-19 spread continued on Friday with another daily total exceeding 1,000 cases.
The state reported 1,319 cases and four new deaths. Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 85,500 Kentuckians have been infected with the disease, and 1,300 have died.
“Our COVID report today adds to a tough week,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “We need to buckle down; we need to wear masks; we need to follow that rule of no gatherings above 10 people at our homes. We need to social distance and we shouldn’t play politics with this virus. It is real. It doesn’t matter if there’s an election a couple of weeks away.”
Nearly 200 of the new cases are children 18 years old or younger. The youngest case is a 7-day-old infant.
Beshear also reported a cluster of cases at another Kentucky prison, Little Sandy Correctional Complex.
“We’ve had 17 inmates and two staff test positive,” Beshear said. “We will be testing the entire facility, and we will be using the protocols that we first used at Green River to successfully stop an outbreak that had occurred there.”
Beshear and his family have been quarantining since a member of his security detail tested positive for COVID-19. They have tested negative, and will continue to quarantine.
