LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Anyone who participates in mass gatherings of any type this weekend will be required to self-quarantine for two weeks, Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday.
License plate information will be collected from cars in parking lots by Kentucky State Police and forwarded to local health departments, who will then present an order to self-quarantine for 14 days at the owners' homes, he said.
"If you're going to expose yourself to this virus and you make that decision to do it, it's not fair to everybody else out there that you might spread it to," Beshear said.
"We shouldn't have to do this," he said.
Beshear has frequently urged churches to cancel in-person services to help limit the spread of COVID-19. As of Friday, he said he knew of about seven churches across Kentucky that planned to hold services as normal for Easter.
He said his new executive order is not limited to churches, but rather any mass gatherings that occur this weekend. It does not apply to drive-in services, though Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has prohibited those in Jefferson County.
Beshear said the judge-executive of Hopkins County took a similar step against drive-in worship services.
"They are responsible for their people just like I am, and I have got to give them the latitude to do what they believe," he said.
Kentucky also experienced the largest daily increase in COVID-19 cases with 242 new positives announced Friday by Beshear. The new record pushes the state's total number of COVID-19 cases to 1,693 since the pandemic began.
Beshear said 11 more Kentuckians who tested positive for the coronavirus have died. Ninety people linked to COVID-19 have died so far.
"It's a deadly virus even with everything we're doing, even with changing our economy and changing our daily lives," Beshear said. "It is a deadly virus, but it would be so much more deadly if you weren't doing what you're doing."
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