Governor Tests Negative For COVID-19
COVID-19 Update For Tuesday, Aug. 11
Image: Kentucky Governor’s Office.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
rmoore@harrodsburgherald.com
Gov. Andy Beshear and First Lady Britainy Beshear have tested negative for the coronavirus, according to a state press release.
The governor missed a scheduled media appearance earlier Tuesday as well as the daily pandemic briefing because he and his wife were not feeling well. According to the press release, they were tested for COVID-19 to protect themselves and those around them. The test results for Gov. Beshear and his family came back negative.
“This morning, late in the morning, I started feeling bad with a lot of the symptoms that can suggest COVID-19,” Gov. Beshear said in a press release. “Because of that I immediately isolated and canceled events we had in the afternoon. A couple hours later, I was tested. And even the short wait that I had to endure gives me newfound empathy for those that are having to wait even a couple days to get their test results back, knowing that they may be separated from their family and wondering what their immediate future is going to be.”
The governor’s next briefing is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 4 p.m.
According to the state, 562 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Tuesday, with at least 18 cases in children aged five or younger, including an 18-day-old from Hardin County, a 1-month-old from Rowan County and a 3-month-old from Lincoln County. However, the state website, kycovid19, cautions that case numbers may be artificially low because of the data processing issue the governor reported yesterday.
Eight new deaths were reported Tuesday, the youngest a 54-year-old woman from Jefferson County. That raises Kentucky’s toll to 783.
The new cases raise Kentucky’s total to 35,793. At least 8,819 Kentuckians have recovered.
The positivity rate currently stands at 5.87-percent based on a seven-day rolling average.
Around the world, there have been over 20.4 million cases of COVID-19, with over 13.3 million people having recovered and 742,488 deaths, according to Worldometers.info.
In the U.S., there have been 5.2-million cases, with 46,547 new cases recorded by press time Tuesday. So far, 167,348 Americans have died, with 1,157 new deaths recorded Tuesday. So far, over 2.7 million Americans have recovered.
Locally, there are 14 active cases, with four people hospitalized, according to the Mercer County Health Department’s Facebook page. There have been no known deaths related to COVID-19 in Mercer County and 77 people have been listed as having recovered. According to the health department, of the 91 confirmed cases, one third of them have been people younger than 30.
