In his final media briefing about COVID-19 in 2020, Governor Andy Beshear urged people to keep New Year celebrations small and within the home to help keep the state in a plateau of cases.
The governor announced he was extending the state’s mask mandate for another 30 days through an executive order that extends to February 2. The order is another 30-day extension that has been in effect since July.
Beshear also announced executive orders that extend the eviction moratorium through January 31 and allows pharmacists to dispense emergency refills over the phone through February 4.
Kentucky reported 2,990 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and 31 additional deaths. The state’s positivity rate jumped half a percentage point to 8.4-percent – the biggest jump since the first of the month.
However, the number of patients in the ICU with COVID-19 dropped to 380 – the lowest in Kentucky since November 22.
After 11 straight days in the orange, Crittenden County became the first Pennyrile county to drop into the yellow with fewer than 10 new COVID-19 cases over a seven day period according to the state’s incidence rate map.
Caldwell County’s rate of 24.4 placed it into the orange for the fifth straight day, and Lyon County’s 17.9 rate was the second time in three days they were in the orange.
The other six counties in the Pennyrile region, including Trigg and Christian, have been a red county every day in December according to the state’s COVID-19 reporting website.
