Headlines

• 687 Cases (+93), 20 Deaths (+2)

• New Cases: 31x Jefferson, 12x Fayette, 8x Harrison, 8x Daviess,
5x Kenton, 4x Warren, 2x Clark, 2x Pulaski, 2x Montgomery, 2x
Henderson, 2x Madison, 2x Bourbon, 1x Spencer, 1x Hardin, 1x
Jessamine, 1x Lyon, 1x Christian, 1x Menifee, 1x Oldham, 1x
Nelson, 1x Franklin, 1x Anderson, 1x Calloway, 1x Breathitt
• New Deaths: 60 M Daviess and 76 Female from Hopkins
• Slides from update
Full Notes
• We will get through this and we will get through this together.
Say it with me. We will get through this, we will get through this
together.
• 10 Steps to defeating Coronavirus (Image of steps)
• Only source of information: http://kycovid19.ky.gov/
• Or call the hotline 800-722-5725 This is the go to source for
information.
• We cannot repeat last weekend, especially since the weather is
getting nicer. Be healthy at home. Let us know if you see
businesses/people not following the guidelines (833-KY-SAFER
or 833-597-2337)
• If we are healthy at home, we have PLENTY of time to complete
the Census. As social distancing is your patriotic duty, so is
completing the Census. This will help (our budget)
• Use the following hashtags on social media: #TeamKentucky
#KYTogether #Patriot #HealthyAtHome
• Shows social media slides (Images of slides). We need to keep
modeling behavior and positive peer pressure. Shows children
make a clever video to spread COVID-19 awareness. We
appreciate these kiddos spreading the message. More chalk
drawings on the sidewalk for neighbors to read to remind them of
 what we should be doing. Shows Elisha Goulet making PPE. We
need more people doing this. Let me thank those healthcare
workers, the grocery store works, our police, firefighters, EMS,
our social workers, and for so many others you’re heroes! Our
kids see it and they appreciate it. They know you’re heros.
Another photo shows a father with their daughter explaining why
she couldn’t play in the jungle gym. Another photo of social
media meetings all wearing green shirts. KAHCF/KCAL was given
PPE from Gray Construction. Another photo shown of a house lit
green. A video by teens being creative from Glasgow High School
softball team.
• We are in the surge, and our curve is increasing. This entire
month is absolutely critical. We normally see the ramifications of
how well we are doing two weeks later. Your sacrifices are
making a difference, but please, dig a little deeper. We have 3
primary ways we fight this: social distancing, being healthy at
home, and shutting down business. This is the one thing that is in
our control, by decreasing the number of cases we have, you as
an individual can make a difference, by using social distancing.
Your actions and your choices can flatten that curve. You have
more control than what you think. I need you, our state needs
you.
• Number 1: Social distancing Number 2: Steps to increase
healthcare capacity Hospital beds 18,500, ICU beds 1,300, and
1,352 ventilators (Slide). These numbers are growing to include
hotel beds (~1,600 and growing). I’m comfortable we increased
our ventilator capacity, they won’t be hospital grade, but they will
help. We are trying to double our number of ventilators. Number
3: is our testing capacity. We are working hard on this. We can
confirm over 10,000 tests have been given in Kentucky. Hopefully
tomorrow they will be a more accurate number.
• Every two steps forward is one step back because test kits that
 were supposed to come to us, they end up being redirected
somewhere else. Not just KY, but nationwide. We are scraping for
it everyday, I hope, in the next couple days, to have a positive
announcement about increased capacity due to a new lab here in
KY
• Social distancing, increasing our capacity, and testing are our
priorities.
• Graph of Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Louisville (Slide 1, 2, and 3).
Health care capacity and increasing it when we’re in the surge.
Our goal is to increase our testing capacity. Our hope is that by
the time of the bump that we will have the ability to identify and
contract trace. So those are three critical things we are looking
at.
• (Whitehouse graph) The White House has shown that with
intervention we can keep the death toll down to 100,000-240,000
deaths. But we think this is a bit optimistic.
• While we are still working on our modeling, we will be showing
different projections for KY using the Whitehouse’s numbers (KY-
specific graph)
• But with what the White House has shown, KY will be looking at
1,300 - 3,200 deaths. We think this is still optimistic but we can
flatten that further with the actions we take. I believe our
numbers will be tough. But they are only a prediction, and we are
strong and tough.
• We’re doing all of these things, looking out for those projected
1,300 - 3,200 Kentuckians by following the guidelines.
• This is why we’re doing what we’re doing, but I will show you a
more pessimistic graph in the future and I want you to be
prepared for that
• From Hopkins County Health Department. They have been hit
REALLY hard. Letter: We had a church that had a preacher from
Texas come down to Dawson Springs for a revival. When he left a
 lot of people got sick. On social media that they did not have
corona but the flu and posted it on social media to not practice
social distancing and keep coming to church. They now have 24
cases, 100’s of contacts, and 2 deaths connected to this revival.
We have a nursing home infected, a business, a hospital unit
needed to be closed and a COVID unit was opened because of
this. This is how being the exception can make things worse.
• Let me say that Hopkinsville has been working really hard. But
because of this congregation, we have now hurt people. You can’t
be doing that. Let’s be better.
• 93 new cases today. While this is a large number, this isn’t
reflecting other states doing worse. And our rate of infection is
slower (spreading)
• 2 new deaths: 60 Male Daviess co, and 76 Female from Hopkins.
We have heard of another from Louisville but have not confirmed
• That is a total of 20 deaths, on being a false report, we are at 20.
Let’s light our houses up green. It means more when YOU do it.
They will drive around the community and they will see their
neighbors doing this. It’s a symbol of renewal, where their spirit
is no longer with us, I believe they are going to better places.
That’s what I believe.
• New Cases 31x Jefferson, 12x Fayette, 8x Harrison, 8x Daviess,
5x Kenton, 4x Warren, 2x Clark, 2x Pulaski, 2x Montgomery, 2x
Henderson, 2x Madison, 2x Bourbon, 1x Spencer, 1x Hardin, 1x
Jessamine, 1x Lyon, 1x Christian, 1x Menifee, 1x Oldham, 1x
Nelson, 1x Franklin, 1x Anderson, 1x Calloway, 1x Breathitt
• But folks, it’s everywhere now.
• There was a county saying, “Well, it’s not in our county.” IT IS.
That county, oddly enough, just tested positive
• What you as Kentuckians can do to help. Support your local
businesses. Order take out, or curbside. Ring those bells at 10AM.
Follow the rules and be a good neighbor. This is a test of
 humanity. By not doing it, it can risk the lives of others. Use
these hashtags and set a positive example: #TeamKentucky
#KYTogether #Patriot #HealthyAtHome
• Video of Coach Mac (MACK) from U of L, asking everyone to give
to donate at https://donate.ky.gov Donate what you can. It’s tax
deductible.
• If you’ve seen social media, you know that Coach Mac is out-of-
state, and when he comes back, he’s going to lead by example to
self-quarantine for 14 days
• I’m going to ask that every reporter, anchor, or otherwise make a
video for your social media platforms getting out the message
about social distancing
• We cannot let a beautiful weekend ultimately harm the people
around us
• So you have two days to get those videos in
• Josh Benton Takes over:
• The governor's right, the numbers are quite unprecedented.
Mentioned yesterday, our system is an older system. We know
what needs to be changed, and we are working diligently to do
that. First thing we did was to let anyone submit an application.
Even if it said it was denied we will process your claim. It will be
processed. It’s been a challenge to consolidate all this
information. We’ve revamped our website (https://kcc.ky.gov),
and shows who’s eligible, how to submit, who to call, to centralize
all this information. Another thing to improve is our phone line
capacity (He never gave the number, you can find them here).
It’s causing backlogs and long wait times that nobody wants to
see. So we are working on this everyday to solve it. We have the
latest info on our social media platform. What you can do, those
who are filing is only use the phone if you need it. Someone who
might be having trouble or needing assistance with the online
application, or in some cases a disability might be involved. We
 need to prioritize and communicate with those over the phone. To
check a claim, those can all be checked online. Doing this will
help reduce the volume on those phone lines. With all of the
changes we had to prioritize what we changed first. First we are
capturing info for all those that DID NOT qualify, we pulled those
offline and did processed those manually. They are going to be
approved under a new act from congress. By the end of the week
you’ll be able to see what that status is. If you file a claim, your
first payment is automatic. We processed over $18.5 million
dollars worth of claims to over 32,000 Kentuckians that filed for
unemployment insurance on the weekend of March 16th. So that
will continue. That first payment does not need to be requested,
it’s automatic. We have taken an all hands on deck approach to
address the UI. Not every claim is perfect and needs to be
reviewed, maybe cleaned up, but we have reviewed and
processed 70,000 of those claims and sent a notice on what to
fix. And just a reminder, something on a large scale of UI, watch
out for those scams, if it’s not coming from a ky.gov email
address then it’s not from us. We are NOT going to call you and
ask you for money. DO NOT PROVIDE INFO TO ANYONE ASKING
FOR THAT. If it’s not from a ky.gov email, it’s not us. CARES Act
automatically extends benefits for 13 weeks so if you are on UI
right now or if your claim was exhausted on or after Jan 27th you
will get info from us on how to extend it. In addition the $600 per
week that will be added to each claim will happen when we get
the okay from the federal government on the funding stream and
when it’s coming to the states. Starting March 29th it’s eligible.
Potentially the payments going out next week could have that
included. But we will let you know. We know it’s been frustrating,
we know. Just reserve the phone line for those that need them.
In the meantime we will continue to increase overall capacity.
• Governor Beshear takes over:
• I can say most of that is good news, but we will work to do better
each and every single day.
• Beware of scams, especially at-home-testing kits. Beware of pop-
up testing facilities that are not confirmed by me or the Health
Departments.
• KY National Guard is now being activated to help the food banks.
Food banks will provide distribution to those at risk of hunger.
QUESTIONS
• Does the governor plan to implement a requirement to show
proof of work to cross the state line? -- No, we already went over
this. Only time to go over state lines: Work, care for loved one,
shop for groceries, or for a court order.
• The state has seen a decrease in referrals/calls to the Child abuse
hotline since school close, are we worried? -- Yes we absolutely
are. So we need those that see it, report it. It is not just a moral
obligation but legal duty
• What can you say to those businesses that haven’t taken steps to
protect their employees? -- You have to. It was an order from
me. You have to. If there are businesses that have not taken
those steps, it’s a big problem and they will have a big problem if
they don't get on board
• Reaching out to Lowes and home depot? -- I feel we have seen
more compliance. Yesterday we had seven deaths. I hope that
woke people up. Not following guidance and we will see more of
that. We talked to Walmart and they are taking steps and we
asked them to take additional steps. We still need to reach out to
dollar general house numbers. I don’t want to criticize the White
House for it because it caused them to push the guidelines out to
April 30th. But we think the danger is greater than what they
projected but we can do better. This is just the general sort of
distancing, but we can do better and get everyone on board. No
more of what Hopkinsville did. We need to be committed and be
 better than any of these models.
• About a pop-up site in Louisville that was asking for $250 in
CASH for a test -- Yes, I’ve heard. I know the police department
is on it. So, any of these false pop-up testing site, don’t fall victim
to them. Any of these need to be coordinating with our public
health department
• Dr. Stack takes over
• You should not be paying your hard-earned money to get a test.
If you are not sick or don’t feel sick, you don’t need a test. If you
feel ill and feel you need a test, follow the guidelines. Please don’t
go to these places to spend that much money, it’s not going to
make a difference.
• Governor takes back over:
• Reaching out to Lowes and home depot? -- I feel we have seen
more compliance. Yesterday we had seven deaths. I hope that
woke people up. Not following guidance and we will see more of
that. We talked to Walmart and they are taking steps and we
asked them to take additional steps. We still need to reach out to
dollar generalhose numbers. I don’t want to criticize the White
House for it because it caused them to push the guidelines out to
April 30th. But we think the danger is greater than what they
projected but we can do better. This is just the general sort of
distancing, but we can do better and get everyone on board. No
more of what Hopkinsville did. We need to be committed and be
better than any of these models.
• Does KY anticipate using antibody testing and plasma donation
for the severe cases -- I know there are some healthcare facilities
that are looking into that now. Some of the talk about this is
beyond we have scientific knowledge on
• The PPE we have on hand (Number)? -- Don’t have that
information on hand, we have donations coming in, and PPE is
hard to get. We are looking at a way to keep track of that. This is
 the reason social distancing is so important, if we can stretch out
our curve there is a chance there will be more PPE out there for
us to buy. It’s our challenge. Test kits, swabs, masks, gloves,
gowns, they are all difficult to procure. Most stuff coming into this
country goes directly to FEMA. The stuff we are getting is coming
in in smaller quantities that we would like
• We were able to state today that some deaths were not reported
accurately -- We have 61 health departments, and we have info
and data going this way and that, and there ARE going to be
mistakes. We are conducting an audit on the different labs to get
their total number of tests and positives. But the numbers we get
are from one person on the phone talking to another on the
phone. Mistakes will happen, we will do are best top be
transparent and give accurate information
• First am I frustrated that we are in a situation where we, as
states, have to compete for PPE? -- Yes, I am. But we are
working hard on getting what we need, some are harder than
others to procure. We are focusing on 3 things (for PPE):
Procurement, manufacturing, and donations. We’ve mainly had
donations of industrial N95 respirators, it’s not the best medical
grade, but we will take it. 3M should put out the patent for their
masks during them but that has not happened yet.
• Do we know how many healthcare workers have tested positive?
-- We do not have an exact number but we believe this to be over
50
• With it being the first and rent and other bills being due can the
Governor give guidance on what to do while waiting on UI and
the federal stimulus -- Right now, you CAN NOT BE EVICTED. It is
illegal to evict someone right now in KY. Again, if you can pay
your rent, pay it.
• PPE question. Have you been told the national stockpile is empty?
-- No I have not
• What percent of what we requested have we actually received? --
Let me get that for you. We get MUCH less than we ask for
• The Washington Post said you got more than you asked for -- No.
We have gotten much less than we requested.
• Comment on a study from University of Washington that attempts
to project the number of hospital beds and deaths that KY will see
at the peak? -- I want to wait until we present our own modeling.
In terms of beds, our projection will be that we need more. I
want to make sure we can have more than that.
• Status on the state of the health department and the University
of Kentucky to produce specific modelling? -- We are still working
on that
• Any other inmates or DOD staff that have tested positive since
Monday? -- Northpoint test was negative. As for Green River we
have four folks who have tested positive and only
admin/healthcare. Inmates who have been exposed to those
individuals have been quarantine
• Can we confirm any cases at Western State hospital in
Hopkinsville? -- I believe we have one case
• On GE -- I have been in communication with them. We are
watching the progress being made and the agreement that can
be reached between the employer and the employees
• Update on the Campbell county nursing home ? -- I don’t have an
update
• There have been reports of out-of-state license plates in the state
in the East -- We have that in the west as well and I’ve been
asked by local officials to shut down state parks and we are
working on shutting down on anyone 's ability to congregate.
When we are looking at the worst states and cities, we don’t want
to look like that.
• Question on the WH numbers on practicing social distancing vs
not -- We see this as a fast-moving virus preying on those
especially with heart, lung, kidney disease, compromised immune
systems. Public health officials, not just in our state, see these
projections as optimistic (The Whitehouse projections) when you
look at those numbers. I don’t want to criticize the White House
for it because it caused them to push the guidelines out to April
30th. But we think the danger is greater than what they projected
but we can do better. This is just the general sort of distancing,
but we can do better and get everyone on board. No more of
what Hopkinsville did. We need to be committed and be better
than any of these models.
END QUESTIONS