Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) continues to lead the Bluegrass State down the proper course in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, despite opposition from Republicans at every turn (including Kentucky’s own Clown Prince Of COVID, Senator Rand Paul).
After Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) announced yesterday that there were only 8 open ICU beds in his entire state, and after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) had to ask the Federal Government for 300 ventilators and associated equipment in order to meet the massive spike in COVID cases currently raging in that state, Beshear took the stage to give his latest COVID briefing.
30 minutes into today’s briefing, he dropped the big announcement: today, he issued an Executive Order requiring masks or face coverings in all of Kentucky’s public and private pre-K, K-12, and childcare facilities. Of course, there are the expected (and quite reasonable) exemptions; children under 2, those actively eating/drinking, those receiving or delivering services that require face coverings to be removed (e.g. speech therapy), and others are listed in the Executive Order.
If you listen to the briefing below, you can hear the frustration in his voice (at 31:55) as he reiterates that he has been urging school districts (for weeks) to begin the school year with masks and face coverings. Sadly, as of today only 48 of Kentucky’s 171 public school districts were operating under mask requirements; that lack of cooperation undoubtedly prompted Beshear’s Executive Order.
One school superintendent, whose district did not impose a mask mandate when their students returned to school last week, shared the results of that decision; only three days into the school year, his district had 95 confirmed cases of COVID among students and 700+ faculty, staff, and students in quarantine. Other districts had similar stories to tell.
The Executive Order was effective today and will be in effect for 30 days; while Beshear stated that he doesn’t plan to go back into any sort of lockdown, he will renew the Executive Order as needed, possibly in two-week increments as we track the disease through the Commonwealth.
Speaking not only as a Kentuckian, but also as the father of two public school teachers, I’m proud to be making this report, as I was when last I wrote of Beshear here at Daily Kos. Once again, he’s doing things the right way.
