Kentucky is updating the way it will report COVID-19 cases among school districts across the Commonwealth to ensure the latest information is being reported and not delayed, in some cases by a couple of days.
Governor Andy Beshear and Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack shared the new information during a news briefing Monday. Dr. Stack adds they have changed current regulations for school districts that add COVID-19 to the list of communicable diseases that must be reported by parents.
Governor Beshear adds there will be no more recommendations concerning the way classes should be held at public school districts from his office after Monday, September 28, unless the state’s positivity rate is above 6%. That rate was set by Dr. Stack based on other rates by neighboring states who have different rates.
Dr. Stack adds there will also be new ways that the public can easily view cases that come from each school district on the state’s COVID-19 website.
Dr. Stack spoke about a color-coded system that will help school officials make the best decision on how schools should operate, with the system being created by standards set by the national government.
Governor Beshear stresses that schools will still work with public health departments and other officials to ensure the best decision for classes is made each week.
In other updates, Governor Beshear announced 342 new COVID-19 cases Monday, 54 of which are among children. The governor also confirmed 5 new deaths raising the death toll to 1,065 since the pandemic began.
The new deaths included a 71-year-old female from Christian County that was announced by the Christian County Health Department Friday night.
The state’s positivity rate sits at 4.17%, down from nearly 4.5% on Sunday.
Governor Beshear also shared that over 1 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted across the Commonwealth.