Cases surge in district, state

By Greg Bird
birdman@tmcvoice.com

Less than a month after some restrictions on mandated business closures and group gatherings were eased, the total number of COVID-19 cases, which had been trending downward, have seen a small spike as Kentucky continues steps to reopen its economy.
As of Wednesday morning the Lake Cumberland District Health Department reported there were now 28 active cases of COVID-19 in the 10-county area, an increase of 18 since last week.
The majority of the new cases have been reported in Russell County, which now has 12 active cases – all patients are reported in self-isolation.
Adair, Pulaski and Russell counties by far have had the most cases in the LCDHD. Out of 260 total cases 101 have been recorded in Adair, 66 in Pulaski and 36 in Russell. McCreary, with no active cases in the past three weeks, remains at 13 total cases since March.
Kentucky has seen cases grow by over 1,500 since last week. As of Wednesday Governor Andy Beshear reported the Commonwealth has recorded 11,708 total cases, with 477 being added Tuesday. The death toll continues to rise as well with 35 new fatalities added in the past 7 days, bringing the total to 477.
On Tuesday the Governor announced some restrictions on businesses and restaurants with seating capacity limits would soon see those limits relaxed.
“All of our industries that right now have a capacity limit, like retail at 33%, restaurants and others – at the month date, where they’ve been operating for a month under that 33 percent, we are going to increase that capacity to 50 percent,” the Governor announced Tuesday.
Some retail locations were allowed to reopen on May 11, and restaurants on May 22 but were required to limit capacity to 33 percent. Presumably those capacities will be raised to 50 percent at the one-month mark, though the businesses would still be required to comply with health guidelines and other requirements.