Burgin Goes Back To Virtual Instruction As COVID-19 Cases Continue To Escalate
COVID-19 Update For Tuesday, Oct. 27
Image: Kentucky Department of Public Health.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
rmoore@harrodsburgherald.com
Burgin elementary students are returning to virtual instruction. Burgin Principal Chris LeMonds announced Monday a primary teacher tested positive for COVID-19. On Burgin’s Facebook page, LeMonds said it was determined the teacher had been in close proximity to other primary teachers during lunch and those teachers would likely have to quarantine for 14 days. Due to a shortage of substitute teachers, Burgin decided to go virtual for two weeks for students kindergarten through 3rd grade. LeMonds said the students will return to in-person learning on Monday, Nov. 9.
Due to training for middle school and high school teachers, and in order to deep clean each classroom, all students will be virtual on Thursday, Oct. 29.
“This will give us a six-day long weekend in order to ensure the building is deep cleaned,” LeMonds said.
Grades 4–12 will return to in-person learning on Wednesday, Nov. 4.
The announcement comes as COVID-19 continues to spread in Mercer County and across the United States, especially in the rural parts of the nation. While the pandemic initially struck America’s urban centers such as New York City, the disease has since spread into the country.
On Friday, Oct. 23, the US set a record for new COVID-19 infections 82,887 in a single day. According to the Daily Yonder, rural counties accounted for 17,818 new infections. It was the fifth week in a row in which rural areas set a new record for COVID-19 infections.
On Monday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 10 recommendations for counties that have gone into the red zone based on the incidence rate. Among those recommendations were canceling public and private events of any size. The governor asked Kentuckians to renew their commitment to social distancing. He said he may have to look at statewide solutions if Kentucky’s positivity rate passed 6-percent.
“If more people would follow these restrictions, we wouldn’t have to take additional steps,” Beshear said.
On Tuesday, the governor announced 1,786 new cases, raising the state’s total to 99,637. In addition, 18 new deaths were announced, raising the state’s death toll to 1,428. Currently, there are 913 Kentuckians in the hospital, with 233 in intensive care. Kentucky’s positivity rate is 5.97.
“We are in a dark and difficult time,” Beshear said Monday. “It’s about to get darker.”
So far, 17,881 Kentuckians are listed as having recovered.
Here in Mercer County, there are currently 60 active cases, with 18 cases added since Friday. According to the Mercer County Health Department’s Facebook page, five people are in the hospital, while 20 have died so far.
According to Worldometers.info, there have been over 44.2 million confirmed cases across the world, with over 1.1 million deaths and over 32.5 million people listed as having recovered.
The US remains the global epicenter, with over 9 million cases—including 55,248 new cases by press time Tuesday. So far, 231,840 Americans have died, with 795 new deaths by press time. So far, over 5.8 million Americans are listed as having recovered.
For more information, visit govstatus.egov.com/kycovid19.
