Gov. Beshear Provides Update on COVID-19

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Aug. 2, 2020) – Gov. Andy Beshear on Sunday updated Kentuckians on the state’s continuing efforts to fight the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).

“We’ve made it to August, and while I know we all hoped months ago when this pandemic first arrived in Kentucky that we’d be closer to a decisive victory, we remain at war with the coronavirus,” the Governor said. “We need everyone in this fight, to save lives, to save our economy, and to help get our kids back in school. I know we have what it takes and that we’ll do what it takes because we care about one another.”

Case Information
As of 1 p.m. Aug. 2, Gov. Beshear said there were at least 31,185 coronavirus cases in Kentucky, 463 of which were newly reported Sunday. Eleven of the newly reported cases were from children age 5 and younger.

“We appear to be seeing what we all hope is a plateau in the alarming growth of coronavirus cases in the commonwealth,” the Governor said. “It shows that wearing a mask, social distancing, and not traveling to virus hot spots is working. We need to see this trend continue to avoid having to make more hard choices and sacrifices.”

Unfortunately, Gov. Beshear reported two new deaths Sunday, raising the total to 742 Kentuckians lost to the virus.

The deaths reported Sunday to include a 56-year-old man from Oldham County and a 70-year-old woman from Muhlenberg County.

“This is a pivotal time for Kentuckians. Tomorrow, we begin a new week in a new month, a month in which we will implement Healthy At School guidelines as students and teachers return to classrooms,” said Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner for the Department for Public Health.

“I’m cautiously optimistic we have blunted our steep COVID-19 escalation with the mask requirement, restriction of gatherings to 10 or fewer people, bar closings and restaurant capacity restrictions. This is a prolonged challenge, though,” Dr. Stack said.

“As we continue to fight COVID-19 with personal choices that include responsible decisions about travel, crowd sizes, thorough and frequent hand-washing and wearing face masks, there’s still a need to keep other public health considerations in mind, conditions that don’t care that there’s a global pandemic going on.”

For additional information, including up-to-date lists of positive cases and deaths, as well as breakdowns of coronavirus infections by county, race and ethnicity, click here.

More Information
Read about other key updates, actions, and information from Gov. Beshear and his administration at governor.ky.gov, kycovid19.ky.gov and the Governor’s official social media accounts Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Kentuckians can also access translated COVID-19 information and daily summaries of the Governor’s news conference at teamkentuckytranslations.com.

###