LEXINGTON, Ky. — Before making a last-ditch plea for Kentuckians to avoid big gatherings on Thanksgiving, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 2,690 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Tuesday — the second highest single-day increase ever reported on a Tuesday — and 17 more deaths.
"As we have shown you, we are in exponential growth in our cases here in the commonwealth," Beshear said. "If we do not stop the exponential growth of cases, we will exceed our health care capacity, we will run out of doctors and nurses."
Tuesday's deaths included people in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. The coronavirus death toll has reached 1,809. The state's total number of cases is 162,838.
The positivity rate has dropped slightly to 8.82%. So far this week, the state had administered 67,079 tests. There are 1,658 people hospitalized with the virus — an increase of 85 from Monday — and 390 in intensive care and 207 on ventilators.
Since the commonwealth is already seeing exponential growth of the virus resulting in more hospitalizations, Beshear continues to warn that a marked spike in cases after the holiday will overwhelm Kentucky's health care system. Earlier on Tuesday, the University of Kentucky announced it was temporarily closing five operating rooms the Monday after Thanksgiving at Albert B. Chandler Hospital to free up staff and resources for a projected influx of coronavirus patients. The university had 82 hospitalized coronavirus patients Tuesday and 20 in intensive care — the most, to date.
Recently there's been a higher demand for testing in Kentucky; Beshear said he's worried that's in part because people are using a negative test as an excuse to have a big Thanksgiving.
"While we want more people getting tested, we believe it's people getting tested, and if they test negative, they think they can have a big Thanksgiving," he said. "I hope that's not the case. A single (negative) COVID-19 test can't guarantee a safe Thanksgiving."
He told people, generally, not to hang their hat on a single negative test, noting that it represents only a certain point in time. A person may have the virus but still be in the incubation period, meaning they may still test negative. People planning to attend small gatherings, even if they've tested negative, should still wear masks and practice social distancing, he said.
A week ago, Beshear limited informal group gatherings to two households and no more than eight people. Some have already bucked those restrictions, including two central and northern Kentucky families who on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Beshear, whose measures have, the suit said, "criminalized their family dinner." One of the families in the suit, Austin and Sara Everson of Scott County, have seven children.
At his daily update Tuesday, Beshear called this claim "ridiculous," "dumb" and "a distraction."
"Nobody's saying a family of 10 can't continue to live together and eat together," he said. "What we're saying is if one family wants to have another family over, it (should only) be two households."
Nursing homes continue to suffer outbreaks of the virus, despite exhaustive precautions. There are 92 new infections among residents and 115 new positives among staff members. Beshear also said another veteran from the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore had died, bringing the veteran resident death toll at that facility to 28.
"(They) fought for us, and we failed them," Beshear said.
