KY Governor Extends Executive Order Requiring Face Coverings

The order is being extended 30 days amid rising COVID-19 cases in the state.

(Frankfort, Ky.) – Governor Andy Beshear has renewed the state’s executive order requiring facial coverings.

Beshear said during a news brief Tuesday that the executive order is being extended another 30 days, amid increasing COVID-19 cases in the commonwealth.

The governor announced earlier in the week that the state just saw its highest-ever daily and weekly totals for positive COVID-19 cases. More than 1,200 new cases were reported on Saturday alone. Another 1,054 positive cases were newly reported on Tuesday.

Beshear continues to stress the continued importance of everyone wearing face coverings, calling it the single most important thing all of us can do to fight COVID-19.

“We saw with the last escalation that we have the power to stop it if we simply do what we know works and that is wearing a mask and engaging in social distancing,” the Governor said. “If we are honest with ourselves, we know that fewer people are wearing masks right now than they were when we took steps in July on the mask mandate to stop that escalation.”

As of Tuesday, there have been over 1.5 million coronavirus tests performed in Kentucky. The positivity rate has fallen slightly from the weekend to 4.29 percent and at least 12,751 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus. However, 1,218 Kentuckians have been lost to the virus.

“Yesterday I said more cases equal more people we lose. I want to bring that home a little bit,” the Governor said. “In the United States there is a 2.8% mortality rate for people who contract COVID. I’m proud that in Kentucky, we’ve got some great doctors and nurses and health care workers, and we’re at 1.7%, 1.1% less than the national average. But 6,126 cases of COVID-19 with the mortality rate we have would be 104 Kentuckians just from last week’s cases, we will lose. That’s just one week.”

For more information, visit www.kentucky.gov and www.govstatus.egov.com/kycovid19.

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