Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has announced a new round of major COVID-19 restrictions as the state faces record cases, deaths, and hospitalization numbers.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced multiple new restrictions Wednesday as the state continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases, including:
All public and private K-12 schools will close to in-person instruction starting Monday through the end of the semester. The only exception is for elementary schools in counties outside the red zone, which may reopen on Dec. 7 if the school follows all guidelines.
Beginning on Friday and lasting until Dec. 13:
- All restaurants and bars will close to indoor dining services. Outdoor dining is still allowed, with some limitations.
- Gyms are limited to 33% capacity, and no group classes or indoor games are allowed. Masks are required.
- Indoor gatherings should be limited to two families, not exceeding a total of eight people.
- Attendance at wedding and funerals is limited to 25 people.
Beshear announced a $40 million fund to provide assistance to qualifying restaurants and bars impacted by the dining room closures.
La Tasha Buckner, the governor's chief of staff, said businesses will be eligible for $10,000 in assistance. Those with more than one location will be eligible for a maximum of $20,000.
Businesses owned by a publicly traded company or with drive-thrus driving 50% of their sales will not be eligible, Buckner said.
"We really want to make sure that we target the mom-and-pop individual business owners out there who may be suffering from the largest impact," she said.
The new restrictions arrive as Kentucky's coronavirus case counts surge dramatically and as deaths from COVID-19 have hit record levels this month.
Beshear has insisted that measures taken so far haven't curbed rising infection rates, levels that eventually could overwhelm hospitals and care centers across the state.
On Wednesday, Beshear said "there will not be a shutdown" in what he described as Kentucky's counterattack against the pandemic's third wave.
"We're also not restricting retail any further, but that is based on a commitment to re-up the mask mandate and the enforcement of it because we need every Kentuckian to do their part," Beshear said.
At least 106 of the state's 120 counties are now in the "red" zone, and preliminary modeling predicts at the current rate of exponential growth, far more Kentuckians could die between now and March than the nearly 1,700 who have died since spring.
These are necessary restrictions, and frankly they should have gone into effect two weeks ago after the election, but it's a start. I'm hoping these restrictions will continue into January, but after that the 75% Republican General Assembly goes into session, and they have absolutely promised that they will end Beshear's ability to make any COVID-19 emergency restrictions that aren't approved by the legislature beforehand.
How that works when the General Assembly is only in session 30 legislative days out of the year, well, that will be up to Kentucky's Supreme Court to decide, because I guarantee you that's where things are headed come January 5.
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