Kentucky bars, gatherings of up to 50 people slated for June 29 restart, Beshear says; state releases health guidelines for child care facilities

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky bars will be allowed to reopen June 29, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday.

The reopening of bars will coincide with restrictions being lifted on gatherings of up to 50 people, the governor added.

Social distancing, however, will still be required.

"You could do some weddings that, right now, people are struggling with," Beshear said. "You'd still want the family units spread out a little bit, but, until we know that this virus — that something different is happening — the 6 feet is going to be really important.

"So we're really going to look at and adjust the way we go about a lot of things," he added. "It's hard to think about 50 people being together and being socially distanced, but we're starting to see it in different ways. It's going to require some creativity, but I don't think we would have ever thought about the lines that are outside some stores and how we're doing them right now."

Auctions can reopen June 1, and horse shows can begin June 8, according to the governor.

Child care facilities that care for 10 children or less, including in-home programs and limited-duration programs, will also be allowed to reopen June 8. Larger operations, including center-based licensed childcare programs and day camps will have to wait until June 15.

Child care centers must adhere to strict health guidelines, including staggered playground time and no field trips. Children must be kept in groups of 10 or less, and groups must be kept separate.

Adults must wear masks, but not all children.

"Within facilities, we're going to ask that children under 5 not be required to wear masks," said Eric Friedlander, secretary of the state's Cabinet for Health and Family Services. "It's a judgment call on a child's developmental ability."

The child care health guidelines also apply to church nurseries.

"It makes everybody safer," Beshear said. "Our houses of worship have been really incredible about wanting to do the right things."

For now, public and community pools will remain dry. Beshear said he is not convinced they can reopen safely.

"It's outside the pool; it's people above the water; it's a difficulty in social distancing," he said.

Beshear said he may be open to allowing youth swim teams to compete with smaller, socially distanced crowds.

Guidelines for resuming youth sports around the state should be released Friday, Beshear said.

10 more Kentuckians die from COVID-19; state identifies 135 new cases

Ten more Kentuckians have died after contracting COVID-19, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday.

Forty deaths from novel coronavirus complications have been reported over the past three days. The state's death toll from the respiratory disease is now 386.

Although Beshear said Kentucky "may be in true reduction" of the number of new COVID-19 cases emerging, the state is seeing a spike in virus-related deaths. Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky's public health commissioner, said that is because some people who contracted COVID-19 two weeks ago are entering the most-severe stages of the illness.

"From the data I have available, on average, it's about 13 days from the time you get sick if you're going to succumb or die from this illness that you die," Stack said. "So, when we have data and we see that our numbers were higher a couple of weeks ago, our daily case rates were a bit higher, and now they're going down, which is a good thing."

Two of the deaths reported Thursday were from Jefferson County: a 69-year-old man and a 78-year-old man. Another two deaths were reported in Oldham County: an 81-year-old man and an 86-year-old woman.

State health officials identified 135 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, Beshear said. At least 8,286 people have contracted the virus since the pandemic began.

There are 475 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized, and 92 patients are in intensive care units throughout the state, according to the governor.

At least 3,008 of the state's COVID-19 patients have recovered, Beshear said.

State health officials have processed at least 166,240 COVID-19 tests, according to the governor. That's an increase of 7,568 from the number of processed tests reported Wednesday.

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