Limited visitation at Kentucky's assisted living, personal care homes can resume June 29, Beshear says

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- After a long wait, Kentuckians can soon visit their loved ones at assisted living and personal care homes across the state.

Starting Monday, June 29, group activities involving 10 people or less, communal dining and off-site appointments will be permitted at assisted living and personal care homes, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday in a news release.

If you have a relative at a nursing home or an one of the state's Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities, you'll have to wait until July 15 for visitation to resume, according to Beshear's office.

As outsiders venture into the facilities for much-anticipated reunions with family members and friends, health officials will continue to monitor the coronavirus threat, said Eric Friedlander, the state's secretary of the state's Cabinet for Health and Family Services, in the news release from Beshear's office.

As of Wednesday, at least 1,698 residents of Kentucky's long-term care facilities have tested positive for COVID-19. At least 812 staff members at those facilities have tested positive for the respiratory illness. There have been 342 deaths linked to the coronavirus at the state's long-term care facilities: 339 residents, three staff members.

Six residents of those facilities who tested positive for COVID-19 have died over the past nine days, Beshear said Wednesday.

Beshear restricted access to the state's long-term care facilities on March 10, just days after declaring a state of emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beshear reports eight new virus-related deaths, 280 new cases in Kentucky

Eight more Kentuckians, including two Jefferson County residents, have died after testing positive for COVID-19, according to a news release from Beshear's office. The victims were an 89-year-old woman and an 86-year-old man from Jefferson County, a 69-year-old man from Christian County, a 63-year-old man from Fayette County, 84- 90- and 93-year-old women from Shelby County and an 81-year-old woman from Warren County.

"Each of these deaths is more than an age, a gender and a county," Beshear said in the news release. "Each of these souls was a mother or father, or a sister or brother, or a friend, a daughter, a husband, the list goes on. They were each special to so many other people, whose names we may never know, but whose pain right now is extraordinary."

The state's death toll has climbed to 546 with Thursday's update.

State health officials have identified 280 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing Kentucky's total number of infections to at least 14,617 since the pandemic began.

Forty-two of the new cases were reported in Jefferson County, according to a report from Kentucky Public Health.

Nearly 380 Kentuckians are currently hospitalized after contracting the respiratory illness, while 3,719 of the state's positive cases have recovered.

Health officials have processed at least 375,636 coronavirus tests as of Thursday afternoon. For information on how to sign up for a test, click here.