In the shadow of Tuesday’s special-called session for the Kentucky General Assembly, Governor Andy Beshear delivered his weekly COVID-19 update — adamant that mask mandates in schools and daycare centers could be the difference between staying in session or breaking for outbreaks and unnecessary quarantines.
To date, more than 25% of the Commonwealth’s school districts have had to pause due to a lashing coronavirus, as the “Delta” variant remains highly-contagious and communicable.
Beshear took the podium not long after the General Assembly’s Senate Education Committee had approved a bill by a vote of 8-to-5, rejecting not only the Beshear Administration’s emergency regulations requiring universal masking of those aged 2 and older in school settings — student and faculty — but also the mandate created by the Kentucky Board of Education, which implied a state of emergency and the potential for a 270-day masking policy indoors.
With the vote now headed to a full Kentucky Senate later this week, the decision comes on the precipice of the most active and new cases of COVID-19 reported during any seven-day period of the pandemic — in what is now more than 30,000 state-wide.
Between Saturday and Tuesday, 13,005 new cases and 60 deaths were confirmed across the state.
Beshear and state officials report more than 2.5 million Kentuckians now have at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, with more than 17,000 reportedly administered over the Labor Day Weekend.
However, only 44% of those aged 18-to-29 are fully vaccinated, and only 55% of those aged 30-to-39 are fully vaccinated — two age groups, Beshear said, where difficult cases and sometimes death have occurred in recent weeks.
Kentucky’s General Assembly will remain in session throughout the week.
