Restaurants, Bars Can Expand To 60-Percent Capacity
Rigo Ayala at La Fonda Restuarant gave the thumb’s up while handling curbside service back in April.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
rmoore@harrodsburgherald.com
Gov. Andy Beshear says 18 industries—including bars and restaurants—can increase capacity to 60-percent as Kentucky completes its seventh straight week of declining COVID-19 cases.
At Monday’s briefing, Gov. Beshear reported the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases since Sept. 28—509—and the lowest positivity rate since Oct. 18—4.84-percent. In addition, he said hospitalizations, ICU admittance and patients needing ventilators have either decreased or stabilized.
Last week, Beshear said schools can reopen on March 1 or as soon as employees have received their second vaccination. This week, the governor relaxed occupancy restrictions on 18 different industries, including barbershops and hair salons, bars and restaurants, fitness centers, funeral and memorial services, government offices, retail shops and event spaces.
The governor also said he intends to increase child care capacity to regular group size on Monday, March 15, if the positive trends continue.
Beaumont Inn announced they will reopen in April on their Facebook page last week. The front desk will begin accepting reservations in March and the tavern restaurant will open in mid to late March.
They are hiring servers, hostesses, bartenders, porters, housekeepers, food runners, and a maintenance person. Applications can be downloaded by clicking here.
Old Fort Harrod State Park reopened for regular hours Wednesday through Sunday starting Wednesday, March 3. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is asking for volunteers to help on a variety of outdoor beautification projects, including painting, staining and cleaning. All volunteers receive discounts to stay and dine at Shakertown.
Volunteers are needed on three days—March 13, 20 and 27—from 1 to 5 p.m. To sign up, click here.
In other good news, Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses have begun arriving in Kentucky. Gov. Beshear said the first vaccine—which does not need to be kept at extreme low temperatures or administered in two shots like the other vaccines— will arrive this week for delivery to independent pharmacies.
“This week, we have already set a record by vaccinating more than 100,000 Kentuckians in a single week,” said Gov. Beshear. “As of today, we have vaccinated just under 700,000 Kentuckians—16-percent of our total population and over 20-percent of our eligible population.”
Starting Monday, individuals in phase 1C can sign up for appointments at regional vaccination centers. To learn more about Kentucky’s 410 vaccination sites, visit vaccine.ky.gov or kycovid19.ky.gov/ky-covid-vaccine.
Case Information
As of 4 p.m. Monday, March 1, Gov. Beshear reported the following COVID-19 numbers:
New cases Monday: 509
New deaths Monday: 15
Positivity rate: 4.84-percent
Total deaths: 4,652
Total confirmed cases: 405,126.
Total listed as having recovered: 47,592
Currently hospitalized: 719
Currently in ICU: 180
Currently on ventilator: 82
As of Friday, Feb. 26, there were 163 active cases locally, according to the Mercer County Health Department, with two people in the hospital and all 163 people showing symptoms.
So far, COVID-19 has officially killed 49 Mercer County residents while 1,683 are listed as having recovered.
Across the globe, there have been over 114 million cases and over 2.5 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. remains the global epicenter for the pandemic, with more than 28.6 million confirmed cases and 514,662 deaths.
