LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Fourteen more Kentuckians who tested positive for COVID-19 have died, as the number of new cases hit 625, nearly half of which were linked to Green River Correctional Complex, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday.
More than 1,000 inmates and employees at the prison have been tested for COVID-19, of which 309 yielded positive results, Beshear said. Many of those who tested positive for the novel coronavirus were asymptomatic, he said.
In all, Beshear said about 400 positive COVID-19 cases have been identified from Green River inmates and staff members since the pandemic began.
Kentucky officials plan to test all residents of nursing homes, prisons and other facilities in the weeks ahead, he said.
"It's a lot of positives, but we are going to see some more positives as we go out and we test everybody in a long-term care facility, which is what we are going to eventually do, and any other correctional facility that we go into, we're going to see this," Beshear said.
J. Michael Brown, Beshear's cabinet secretary, said inmates and staff at Green River can be isolated into four groups at the facility: those who have tested positive, those who have been exposed to someone who has tested positive, those who have tested negative, and those who are vulnerable and negative.
"We know that this plan is being implemented as we speak," Brown said.
Brown said the facility is waiting on results from 52 other COVID-19 tests.
Two inmates and two staff members from Green River are currently hospitalized, with one prisoner and one employee in intensive care, he said.
Despite the latest numbers, Beshear said he will move ahead with this plan to gradually reopen the state beginning next week.
"I believe that we can do this, but I'm not going to be afraid to pause things if we believe that we're not ready or the situation is dangerous," he said.
Beshear said he has not yet spoken with Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb about that state's more aggressive plan to re-start, but he is again asking Kentuckians not to cross the river and possibly bring the virus back home.
"Todays numbers, while we still believe we can move forward on Healthy at Work, ought to be a wake up call that there's still a very dangerous virus out there."
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