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Eye on the Right: Extremists in Congress
Welcome to a new feature called Eye on the Right, tracking right wing extremism and attempts to hold them accountable. EDIT: ADDED A TLDR IN PINNED COMMENT Housekeeping:
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Threats and Security
The Department of Homeland Security released a warning that the nation continues to be threatened by “violent domestic extremists...emboldened” by the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The bulletin is a noticeable departure from those issued by the Trump administration, which consistently sought to downplay the danger posed by right-wing agitators.
“Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence... Long-standing racial and ethnic tension—including opposition to immigration—has driven [domestic violent extremist] attacks, including a 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas that killed 23 people. DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021…
Lawmakers have continued to face threats since Biden’s inauguration, mainly posted online and including plots to attack Congressional members during travel to and from the Capitol during the impeachment trial. A group of 32 lawmakers sent a letter to House Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader McCarthy on Wednesday requesting more flexibility for using their congressional allowances to further secure their district offices. The letter, led by Rep Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Dean Phillips (D-MN), was also signed by Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump a second time.
"Most Members spend the majority of their time in their Congressional Districts where security is often sparse," the lawmakers write. "Protecting Members in their District is much harder because local law enforcement agencies are stretched and limited, and often don’t have sufficient staffing or money to provide regular protection to Members."
On Friday, acting House Sergeant at Arms Timothy Blodgett advised lawmakers that he created an online portal for House members to make local law enforcement aware of their travel. The Capitol Police will also maintain an increased presence at D.C.-area airports and train stations during times lawmakers travel.
The Defense Department committed approximately 5,000 National Guard troops to remain in D.C. for the foreseeable future. Concurrently, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested 500 D.C. National Guard members remain through March 12 for the upcoming impeachment trial. She asked for the troops to be unarmed but equipped with crowd control measures like shields and batons.
Numerous states have ordered their state’s contingent of National Guard back from D.C., including those from Florida, Texas, and Utah. Gov. DeSantis (R-FL) and Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) complained that the troops were vetted prior to the inauguration, with the former calling it “totally inappropriate” and “disrespectful.”
Security officials are also concerned about potential unrest on or around March 4, which is when QAnon conspiracists believe Trump will be inaugurated again. “We are not going to allow any surprises again,” said one Guard member. Others are questioning why their deployments were extended, complaining about the lack of information and the unusual predicament of guarding the Capitol as military members. Acting chief of the U.S. Capitol Police Yogananda Pittman testified before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, apologizing for the “failings” that contributed to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. She cited miscommunication, a lack of less-than-lethal weapons, and insufficient manpower. Others who testified at the closed-door hearing included acting D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III, former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, D.C. National Guard Maj. Gen. William Walker, and various law enforcement representatives.
Contee estimated that 850 D.C. police officers were deployed to the Capitol, with 250 assigned to the surrounding area, costing about $8.8 million in the week after the insurrection.
Contee said he was “stunned at the tepid response from Department of the Army, which was reluctant to send the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol” that day.
McCarthy blamed the slow approval of National Guard backup on the lack of intelligence beforehand. “The response time and effectiveness could be greatly improved with a clear, predetermined command and control structure, authorities, rehearsals and integrated plans, and a shared understanding of intelligence assessments of the threat,” McCarthy said.
Acting House sergeant at arms Timothy Blodgett admitted that “there was a failure of preparation,” but strangely boasted that due to the actions of his office and Capitol Police, “every Member and House staff went home without death or serious injury.” Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) responded after the hearing, saying in an interview that no dead or maimed lawmakers was “a pretty low bar.”
In an interview earlier this week, D.C. National Guard Maj. Gen. William Walker said that Pentagon officials restricted his authority to act autonomously prior to the Jan. 6 attack. The restrictions placed on Walker delayed the arrival of troops to assist Capitol officers. Walker was unable to even call up the 40 soldiers on standby without approval from former Army secretary Ryan McCarthy and former acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller.
Had he not been restricted, Walker said he could have dispatched members of the D.C. Guard sooner. Asked how quickly troops could have reached the Capitol, which is two miles from the D.C. Guard headquarters at the Armory, Walker said, “With all deliberate speed — I mean, they’re right down the street.”
However, Walker also stated that former Chief of Capitol Police Steven Sund failed to submit a formal request for assistance:
“All he said was, ‘If I call you, will you be able to help?’ ” Walker said. “And I said, ‘Yes, but I need permission. So send a formal request,’ and I never got it, until after the fact.” The request came, but only at 1:49 p.m. the day of the attempted insurrection. Sund called Walker to say rioters were about to breach the building and the Capitol Police would soon request urgent backup.
“I told him I had to get permission from the secretary of the Army and I would send him all available guardsmen but as soon as I got permission to do so,” Walker said. “I sent a message to the leadership of the Army, letting them know the request that I had received from Chief Sund.”
Extremists involvement
Three members of the Oath Keepers were indicted on a multitude of charges including conspiracy, obstructing an official proceeding, destruction of government property, and unlawful entry on restricted building or grounds. The DOJ’s case is the first evidence of planning among a militia group ahead of the Jan. 6 attack to be filed in court. Jessica Watkins, 38 from Ohio, Donovan Ray Crowl, 50 from Ohio, and Thomas Caldwell, 65 from Virginia, allegedly began soliciting recruits and coordinating the invasion of the Capitol in November. All three are former military. Caldwell, a retired Navy lieutenant commander, acted as a leader of the operation and organized most of the logistics involved in training and bussing dozens of recruits to D.C. According to the indictment, he recommended a particular hotel because it offered a good base to “hunt at night.”
In a 15-page indictment unsealed Wednesday, prosecutors revealed new allegations, accusing Watkins of contacting recruits on Nov. 9, six days after the election, for a “Basic Training” camp outside Columbus, Ohio, in early January so they would be “fighting fit by innaugeration [sic].” ...Crowl, a former Marine mechanic, attended a training camp in December in North Carolina, while Caldwell hosted Watkins in Northern Virginia
During the insurrection, the three joined other Oath Keepers in communicating on the walkie-talkie app Zello. The FBI obtained recordings of some of the transmissions, such as Watkins stating, “We have a good group. We have about 30-40 of us. We are sticking together and sticking to the plan.”
Watkins posted photos of herself, and with Crowl, on her Parler account and captioned a photo by stating, “Me before forcing entry into the Capitol Building. #stopthesteal2 #stormthecapitol #oathkeepers #ohiomilitia.” Subsequently, she posted a video of herself inside the Capitol captioned, “Yeah. We stormed the Capitol today. Teargassed, the whole, 9. Pushed our way into the Rotunda. Made it into the Senate even. The news is lying (even Fox) about the Historical Events we created today.”
A New York Times investigation has visually located ten other Oath Keepers who accompanied Crowl and Watkins into the Capitol building on Jan. 6. The group can be seen on video from the day marching up the stairs in a military-esque line. Furthermore, following the insurrection, all ten “gathered around the Oath Keepers’ leader, Stewart Rhodes, just 70 feet from the building.”
The Justice Department also indicted two Proud Boys members with conspiracy to interfere with law enforcement, civil disorder, unlawfully entering restricted buildings, and disorderly conduct. Unlike his co-defendant William Pepe (31 y.o. From NY), Dominic Pezzola (43 y.o. From NY) faces a slew of other charges including robbery of personal property of the United States, assaulting or resisting officers, destruction of government property, and physical violence.
It is alleged that Pezzola and Pepe took...actions to remove temporary metal barricades erected by the Capitol Police for the purpose of controlling access to the Capitol Grounds... It is further alleged that Pezzola confronted a Capitol Police officer attempting to control the crowd and ripped away the officer’s riot shield, while the officer was physically engaging with individuals who had gathered unlawfully in the west plaza of the Capitol. Pezzola can be seen on video that has been widely distributed, using that riot shield to smash a window at the U.S. Capitol.
After locating and arresting Pezzola, FBI agents searched his home. They found a thumb drive containing “detailed instructions for making homemade firearms, poisons, and/or explosives.” Prosecutors are asking the court to keep Pezzola in detention until trial, citing his “willingness to attempt to go off the grid” and the “serious danger” he poses to the community.
According to an analysis by CNN, at least eight rioters charged so far are affiliated with the Proud Boys. It is likely more will be charged as investigations develop.
Wall Street Journal Video Investigation: Proud Boys Were Key Instigators in Capitol Riot (not paywalled)
Republican connections
Republican members of Congress have their own links to extremist groups who took part in the insurrection. According to the New York Times, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) visited a chapter of the Oath Keepers “a few years” ago and told the group that we’re already in the midst of a civil war, “we just haven’t started shooting at each other yet.” The leader of Stop the Steal claimed Gosar and fellow Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs helped plan and organize Trump’s Jan. 6 rally. Both Gosar and Biggs reportedly sought pardons for their roles in the insurrection from Trump but did not receive them. Freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has a history of associating with the Three Percenters, which also had members present in the Capitol on Jan. 6. One of those charged last week, Robert Gieswein, runs a paramilitary training group in Boebert’s home state.
Before the attack, Gieswein gave a media interview in which he echoed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the affidavit said, and said his message to Congress was “that they need to get the corrupt politicians out of office. Pelosi, the Clintons . . . every single one of them, Biden, Kamala.”
Another Three Percenter from Texas, Guy Reffitt, was arrested for his part in storming the Capitol - after he allegedly threatened to shoot his children if they turned him in. “If you turn me in, you’re a traitor and you know what happens to traitors … traitors get shot,” his wife recounted to FBI agents. In December 2019, Boebert posed with members of the Three Percenters in front of the Colorado state Capitol. The year before, Gieswein himself posed in front of Boebert’s Shooters Grill holding a rifle with others flashing the Three Percenters hand gesture. A Colorado chapter of the extremist group even provided security for a campaign event in July 2020, claiming her campaign invited them. Following the assault on the Michigan capitol by in 2020, Boebert was asked about her thoughts on citizens carrying guns while protesting government actions:
Reporter: Gun-toting militia members in Michigan just stormed the state capitol (on April 30) and unsuccessfully demanded access to the floor of the legislature. Some lawmakers said they were intimidated by the show of firepower. Was that appropriate?
In a preview of events to come, Boebert replied “I don’t see why they’re not allowed to” enter a “public building like that with a firearm.” More recently, Boebert and other Republicans have made a spectacle over the newly-installed metal detectors to enter the House floor. Some House Republicans threw temper tantrums and berated the very Capitol Police officers who had protected them during the insurrection just days earlier.
“Horse shit!” shouted Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.). “Bullshit!” “You are creating a problem you do not understand the ramifications of!” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) warned Capitol Police officers. “You can’t stop me, I’m on my way to a vote,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), walking around the magnetometer outside the House chamber. Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho) just pushed his way through. He went through the metal detector and set it off, shoved an officer out of his way and walked into the House.
Huffington Post’s Matt Fuller made note of the lawmakers who disregarded the new security measures: Reps. Randy Weber (Texas), Richard Hudson (N.C.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Jeff Duncan (S.C.), Bob Gibbs (Ohio), Bob Latta (Ohio), Garret Graves (La.), Markwayne Mullin (Okla.), Virginia Foxx (N.C.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Bill Huizenga (Mich.), Alex Mooney (W.Va.), Larry Bucshon (Ind.), Debbie Lesko (Ariz.), and Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colo.). Boebert went a step farther than others, engineering a standoff with guards asking to check her handbag for weapons before entering the building. It is not clear if her bag was ultimately searched but she was allowed entry. She later tweeted: “I am legally permitted to carry my firearm in Washington, D.C., and within the Capitol complex. Metal detectors outside of the House would not have stopped the violence we saw last week — it’s just another political stunt by Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi.” Following the Republican insubordination, Speaker Pelosi instituted a new rule to impose fines - $5,000 fine for a first offense and $10,000 fine for a second - on lawmakers who refuse to pass through the metal detectors. While firearms are banned on the House floor, a 1967 regulation exempts members of Congress from a federal law prohibiting guns on the Capitol grounds. Boebert has vociferously objected to the House rule, declaring two days before the insurrection that she “will carry [her] firearm in D.C. and in Congress” to stand up for Second Amendment rights. It is not known if she ever followed through with carrying a gun onto the House floor in violation of the rules. We do know, however, that at least one Republican member implied he was armed on the floor and at least one attempted to bring a gun through the metal detectors. Freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorne (R-NC) told a local news outlet that he “was armed” during the insurrection while on the House floor. Hours earlier, Cawthorne spoke to the crowd that rioted in support of Donald Trump: "My friends, I encourage you, continue to make your voice heard, because, do we love Donald Trump?" Cawthorn said. During the second day of metal detectors in the House, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) set off the alarms while trying to enter with a concealed gun on his side. Capitol Police did not permit him entry, so Harris tried to persuade fellow Republica Rep. John Katko of New York to take the gun from him. Katko refused, telling Harris he didn’t have a license to carry a gun. Ultimately, Harris left and returned to successfully pass through the detectors.
The Capitol Police are investigating the incident. Additionally, government watchdog The Campaign for Accountability requested a federal investigation into whether Harris broke the law by possessing a weapon not registered in D.C. A spokesperson for Harris said the congressman has a Maryland handgun permit, but did not say if he has registered a gun in D.C.
On Thursday, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) filed legislation to ban members from carrying guns on Capitol grounds, even in their offices. Speier said the No Congressional Gun Loophole Act is necessary because “the existing exemption for Representatives increases the risk of gun violence for Members, staff, and the public.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene
And now we get to freshman Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who really could take up an entire post. I’ll keep each point short and provide links for further information. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) announced that she is moving her office after a heated altercation with Marjorie Taylor Greene (hereafter referred to as “MTG”) apparently sparked by the latter’s refusal to wear a mask in the Capitol. "A maskless Marjorie Taylor Greene & her staff berated me in a hallway. She targeted me & others on social media. I'm moving my office away from hers for my team's safety" Bush tweeted Friday.
Bush: "I moved my office because I'm here to do a job for the people of St. Louis. They deserve that. And what I cannot do is continue to look over my shoulder wondering if a white supremacist in Congress by the name of Marjorie Taylor Greene or anyone else, cause there are others, that they are doing something or conspiring against us."
In videos published during her campaign - but recorded in years prior - MTG espouses a multitude of racist ideas:
[She] suggested that Muslims do not belong in government; thinks black people “are held slaves to the Democratic Party”; called George Soros, a Jewish Democratic megadonor, a Nazi; and said she would feel “proud” to see a Confederate monument if she were black because it symbolizes progress made since the Civil War.
In 2019, MTG promoted a conspiracy theory that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been replaced by a body double in public - part of a QAnon conspiracy that RBG was secretly/dead or incapacitated. In social media posts from 2018 and 2019, MTG interacted with others calling for the deaths of prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In Jan. 2019, she liked a Facebook comment that said "a bullet to the head would be quicker" to remove House Speaker Pelosi from office. MTG wrote on Facebook that the Camp Fire - California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire - was caused by “lasers” from “space solar generators” run by the Rothschilds. In 2018, MTG endorsed a deranged conspiracy from the fringes of QAnon that Hillary Clinton murdered a child during a satanic ritual. MTG called both the Parkland School shooting and Sandy Hook massacre “false flag” operations intended to tighten gun control. She later went on to attack Parkland survivor David Hogg, calling him a coward. Within a month of the first Q post on 4chan in 2017, MTG began posting videos calling him a “patriot” and publishing articles endorsing the conspiracy. In 2017, MTG wrote an article and posted a video explaining that she believed the Las Vegas mass shooting was a government-orchestrated plan to strip away Second Amendment rights.
New deaths by county: 85 M Ballard, 75 F Boone, 52 M Boone, 67 M Boone, 70 M Boone, 72 M Boone, 74 M Boone, 86 F Bourbon, 79 F Bullitt, 88 F Daviess, 92 M Daviess, 58 F Fayette, 70 F Fayette, 80 F Fayette, 76 M Fayette, 86 M Fayette, 84 F Franklin, 94 F Franklin, 74 F Gallatin, 77 F Graves, 85 M Graves, 69 M Harlan, 75 M Hart, 38 M Jefferson, 59 M Jefferson, 76 M Jefferson, 97 F Kenton, 68 M Kenton, 69 M Kenton, 85 M Kenton, 97 M Kenton, 78 M Lawrence, 82 F Letcher, 85 F Letcher, 87 F Letcher, 96 F Letcher, 63 M Letcher, 66 M Letcher, 67 M Letcher, 89 F Metcalfe, 70 M Montgomery, 78 F Oldham, 39 M Oldham, 71 F Perry, 85 F Perry, 78 F Pike, 79 F Pike, 73 M Pike, 89 M Pike, 69 F Pulaski, 76 M Pulaski, 66 F Rockcastle, 70 M Russell, 80 M Shelby, 77 F Simpson, 67 M Taylor, 65 M Wayne, 80 M Wayne
Vaccine: I wanted to make sure we walked you through, again, the fact that certainly for the past four weeks, we are vaccinating more people than we get first doses for. In other words, we are already at the point where we have more capacity than we have supply. <...>Now, I want to give you one other piece of good news, you look down there and you see 401,264 Kentuckians that have had their first shot through one of either the state program, or the long term care program that the federal government contracted with Walgreens and CVS; but those aren't the only Kentuckians that are receiving doses from other places. The federal government is also providing doses to the Bureau of Prisons, to VAs, to Department of Defense workers. And today we got numbers that in addition to the 401,264 that have been vaccinated through the programs we've talked about, another 18,244 Kentuckians have been vaccinated according to the federal government. The vast majority of that of the 18,244 are from the VAs that have vaccinated almost 16,000 Kentuckians, so we appreciate that.
The first is in the Kentucky Convention Center. That is at 1 West River Center Boulevard in Covington. That's an exciting area, which as you can see here will begin Thursday, and run through Saturday, 10am, to 4pm.
Both sites open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, of this coming week, 10am to 4pm. The portals will go live around 5pm with rolling seven day appointments. You go to https://kroger.com/COVIDvaccine, or you call 866-211-5320. Appointments can also be reached by going through https://kycovid19.ky.gov and clicking on the vaccine bar.
The fourth and final new regional site this week is a partnership with TJ Regional Health. That's at the TJ Health Pavilion, 301 North L. Rogers Boulevard, Glasgow, Kentucky. Day and hours are still being determined, but Kentuckians should check on their website soon for more information their phone number is 270-659-1090.
Just one quick note first for claimants: if you were claiming benefits today and saw a strange thing in your claim that the week said “1996” and not “2021”, we know about the problem, we fixed that, we believe by mid-morning, we have no idea what caused it.
We got a question at last week's press conference about what to do, what is the IRS going to do if you don't have a corrected 1099? Again, we still encourage you to look at that as soon as you get it, so we can correct that for you. But the IRS has now announced if you do not have your corrected 1099-G by the time you need to file your taxes. Actually, don't file what's on the 1099G, file what you think is correct. We have that IRS bulletin on our website, on the KCC website under identity theft tips, so feel free to look at that and get some more information about what to do if you are in that situation. [...] So, please check those FAQs that we have out there for you. Of course we are happy to help you out on the email line, but most of the time is a simple misunderstanding.
We've sent an email out to over 68,000 claimants on Tuesday letting them know their claims are being denied, because we can't validate their IDs. <...>Now if you got that email and you are a real life claimant,<...> when you get your notice of determination please pay very careful attention to the appeal deadlines, in that document. You can appeal that determination of denial and give your ID validation at that time.
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and so you can email there and get those questions answered if you think you have that mass claim issue.
So please, we understand there is a lot of fraud out there, if you get one of those fraudulent filings, just like I did this past weekend, you can email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and we will make sure to mark that in the system as a fraudulent claim.
This is something you’re touched on quite a bit, really for a while now. So just wanted to get your thoughts on it again, we're seeing some efforts to limit executive powers for governors, just throughout the region, not only here in Kentucky but in Indiana and Ohio as well I believe. So, I just wanted to ask you again and hear your thoughts on what you see as the potential pitfalls of moving to a system that would require the legislative body to enact certain emergency restrictions. -- We are in an emergency, and in an emergency, you've got to move fast, you’ve got to be fluid, and you’ve got to adjust to battlefield conditions. And when you look at the losses we've sustained, we're fighting a war. We've almost lost 4,000 Kentuckians. And you never fight a war by committee, and we can't fight this one either.
Regarding the regional sites, and even non-regional sites, can you provide any information about any possible state efforts to help people who don't have access, maybe to transportation, and can't get to a location despite being eligible for a dose? Thanks so much. -- We'll have more information on that in the coming weeks, that involve mobile units that we're working on right now and that we hope will be launched in at least one location as early as next week. We’ve got local health departments that are already doing some of that.
Good evening everybody, or afternoon, Virginia. It is four o'clock on Thursday, it'll be the last time we get together this week and remember that we are going to get through this, and we are going to get through it together. I want to start the way we start, most of our days, by focusing on some good news. Remember it's easy to get down during these times the isolation or the change in our lives that has gone on longer than I think we thought that it would. It can hurt and damage our mental health; but one way that we ensure that we fight back against that is to make sure that we know about all the good things that are going on in our state, and in our world around us. So even in tough times, I want to put a spotlight on good news and today.
Let's start with an announcement we made earlier this week. It's a new partnership with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce that's going to help us build a better Kentucky, one with a stronger post-COVID economy and good paying career opportunities for our state's residents. The new partnership is called the Discover Kentucky Initiative, and it will grow European company investment and jobs in our Commonwealth. This is how it works: many internationally based companies are interested in the US market, but they aren't ready to commit to building a factory, establishing an office, or setting up a sales operation. Team Kentucky, through its office in Hamburg, Germany, is often in touch with companies just like this. The Discover Kentucky Initiative will vet these inquiring companies and work with them in three ways to seed the ground for long term economic success. First, the Initiative will introduce Kentucky chamber-member businesses to these inquiring European companies. Second, it'll foster relationships with these European businesses through regular check in and assessments. It'll build a relationship, and will maintain Kentucky as a top-of-mind location for the time when each company is ready to invest in a US operation. And third, it'll ensure continuity of these relationships. Sometimes it may take more than just the tenure of one governor and we want to make sure that our efforts to bring in good jobs from Europe, in this instance, I want to make sure it lasts long after I'm gone. Through this partnership with the chamber, we are taking advantage of how the pandemic is changing business. Companies that may not have considered developing their products in the US, manufacturing or selling here, are now seeing the new value for global diversification. We know this works too. Economic development often hinges on relationships. That's why in any given year about three quarters of all the projects we announce are expansions of companies already in the Commonwealth. European companies today operate more than 220 facilities in Kentucky, employing more than 37,000 people full time. Those facilities often form the economic backbones of communities across Kentucky, and each of those successes starts with a relationship. We're hungry in Kentucky. We feel the urgency of improving our economy, our way of life, and what's out there for our children. I am a 43-year-old governor. I'm going to live in and work in the economy that I helped to create and/or improve as governor, and my kids are too. So that means doing everything we can, every day, through Team Kentucky, partnering with everybody who's out there that wants to generate these great opportunities. I want to get to the time when our kids look around at different places and they would say “Why would I leave, when the best opportunities in the United States are right here in Kentucky?”. I think that's possible and I'm committed to making it happen. I'd like to thank the chamber for its leadership board and member companies for working with Team Kentucky on the initiative. Together we're planting the seeds that are going to grow our post-COVID economy into something that we've always dreamed up.
We also have some good news today for Eastern Kentucky. I'm excited to announce an Appalachian Regional Commission Grant totaling more than $500,000 for Hazard Community and Technical College to expand their commercial driver's licensing (CDL) program. These funds will allow for six classes of CDL students at HCTC’s main campus, and six classes at the Leslie County Campus training 150 students a year. This expansion comes at a great time when the transportation and logistics industry is growing. We have seen its importance during COVID, and the demand for licensed commercial drivers is increasing in Eastern Kentucky. HCTC will use the funds to purchase two new trucks and trailers, program supplies, and provide salaries for one full time instructor, and for four adjunct instructors. Students at HCTC utility lineman program also benefit from the expansion because they must obtain a CDL license to graduate from their program. Thanks to this project, we're going to train more Kentuckians for jobs that are out there right now, that are in demand, that can pay good wages, and we can get more of our people to work right now. Congratulations to Hazard Community and Technical College on this exciting grant. And thank you to everybody who made it possible. Because of your work, eastern Kentuckians will have greater access to education and good jobs in their communities, both of which are top priorities for this administration.
Alright, let's move into our COVID report. Our COVID report continues to have good news in everything but our number of deaths, which continues to be high, difficult, and tragic.
Positive cases today: 2,500 - Let's start with positive trends. Today, we're announcing 2,500 new cases of COVID-19. And just to give you an idea of cases, when we look back about four weeks, so, today I said we have 2500 new cases, on January 11th, it was 4084. So again, a good trend.
That is a high number, but it is the lowest Thursday we've had in over four weeks. And if we stay on this track, we're gonna have fewer cases this week than we did last week, which will give us four straight weeks for the first time in this pandemic of declining cases. So cases are too high, but the trend is some of the best we have seen during the pandemic.
Probable cases: 798
Total confirmed cases: 372,012
Children Under 18: 432
We only have 104 red counties today who would have thought “with 120 counties would be excited about 104?” but that number is dropping, day after day after day.
Total tests conducted: 4,138,554 (PCR: 3,653,551, Serology: 108,691)
Positivity Rate: 8.37% - The lowest since December, 28, meaning the lowest in over a month.
Total hospitalized: 17,170
Generally, hospitalization numbers are all within the realm where we have sufficient capacity, and that's good news, it means that we can take care of those that need our help.
Currently hospitalized: 1,340
Total in ICU: 3,639
Currently in ICU: 368
On a ventilator: 171
Total recovered: 44,394
New deaths today: 58 - But then there's our, our tough news, in that today we're announcing 58 new deaths where COVID-19 was a contributing factor. This is one of the higher numbers that we have had. If there is any positive in these death numbers, it's that a smaller and smaller percentage of them are residents in long term care. Of today's 58 only 18 were in long term care which when you think about we used to be at 66% of all fatalities being in long term care, shows you that our prioritization of individuals in long term care for vaccination is working, and it's saving lives; but we are still losing far too many. And I hope this reminds everybody of how dangerous this virus is. Mask up, protect one another, protect yourself and your family. Follow the rules and the regulations. We don't want to lose 58 people on any given day and now we're 3,921 deaths since the start of this pandemic. We just memorialized our 3,000th death, not long ago, by planting flags out here at the Capitol. And we add to that every day. Going from 3000 to 4000 so quickly is a trend that we have to stop. We certainly need to slow it down, and each and every one of you can help by doing your part.
Total Deaths: 3,921
New deaths by county: 85 M Ballard, 75 F Boone, 52 M Boone, 67 M Boone, 70 M Boone, 72 M Boone, 74 M Boone, 86 F Bourbon, 79 F Bullitt, 88 F Daviess, 92 M Daviess, 58 F Fayette, 70 F Fayette, 80 F Fayette, 76 M Fayette, 86 M Fayette, 84 F Franklin, 94 F Franklin, 74 F Gallatin, 77 F Graves, 85 M Graves, 69 M Harlan, 75 M Hart, 38 M Jefferson, 59 M Jefferson, 76 M Jefferson, 97 F Kenton, 68 M Kenton, 69 M Kenton, 85 M Kenton, 97 M Kenton, 78 M Lawrence, 82 F Letcher, 85 F Letcher, 87 F Letcher, 96 F Letcher, 63 M Letcher, 66 M Letcher, 67 M Letcher, 89 F Metcalfe, 70 M Montgomery, 78 F Oldham, 39 M Oldham, 71 F Perry, 85 F Perry, 78 F Pike, 79 F Pike, 73 M Pike, 89 M Pike, 69 F Pulaski, 76 M Pulaski, 66 F Rockcastle, 70 M Russell, 80 M Shelby, 77 F Simpson, 67 M Taylor, 65 M Wayne, 80 M Wayne
So let's remember each one of those entries I read is a person. Loved by their family, missed by their community, maybe their congregation. Somebody who was so important, that was loved, and that we will miss.
Racial breakdown of all cases: 85% White, 8.5% Black, 5% Multiracial, 1.2% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander
Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 94.3% Non-Hispanic, 5.7% Hispanic
Racial breakdown of all deaths: 88% White, 8.6% Black, 2.7% Multiracial, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% American Indian
Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 98.1% Non-Hispanic, 1.9% Hispanic
Long Term Care Facilities (PDF): 24 new residents and 20 new staff positive from yesterday, and 2 more deaths. These numbers are- and their daily amounts are changing really significantly, which I think is a ray of hope in what are otherwise, really tragic difficult numbers of deaths that were seeing each day.
Today, we're specifically honoring the life of Tommie Speagle of Waco, Kentucky, who was 96. She passed away on Saturday after battling COVID-19. We received a touching tribute from her daughter, her caregiver in her later years, sharing how she was the most wonderful mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend. She lived a full life of adventure living across the country from family members, until she met her first husband Newell Edward Bridewell, who passed away from cancer in 1981. Following that loss, she fell in love again with John Spiegel. She overcame challenges in life, such as a speech impediment that halted her education, yet went on to have a great career, and was an avid reader and poem writer. She was also very active in her church, Rice Station Christian in Irvine. Today, our prayers are with her daughter Beverley Morefield, her two sons, Paul Bridewell and William Bridewell, her stepdaughter Sandy Curl, her stepson JC Spiegel, 6 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. A Wonderful Life and while I’m sure it was a full life, It's not okay that it was cut short by COVID-19. This was someone with a big, large, wonderful family, and it’s really hurting today, and it's been hurting since her passing. So let's think about them, let's think about her. And let's make sure we mask up for one another.
Alright, let's get on to what I believe is other good news, and that's our vaccination efforts. I wanted to make sure we walked you through, again, the fact that certainly for the past four weeks, we are vaccinating more people than we get first doses for. In other words, we are already at the point where we have more capacity than we have supply. And the reason that so many out there can't get appointments is just a matter of supply. This shows that we're filling every appointment that we can possibly put a vaccine in someone's arm for. And I want to show you, if you get on these every day, there's always going to be one day, where you see the most doses available and one day where you see the least, and here's the reason: We get our shipments on Monday and they become available for vaccination on Tuesday, and they come in a lump sum. So all the new supply for a week goes in on Tuesday and obviously can't vaccinate everybody immediately for that supply. And as you go through the week, you know, we end up burning through that full supply. And I want to show you this today because, with the new amount that we got this week 68,475, we've already gone through 42% of it in two and a half days, because this report cuts off at about noon. So this is just Tuesday, Wednesday, and half of Thursday. So again, we have the capability, we’re getting it out within a week; in fact we're doing more, we're making up for some extra that we had from earlier weeks as we ramped up, the issue here is supply. Now, I want to give you one other piece of good news, you look down there and you see 401,264 Kentuckians that have had their first shot through one of either the state program, or the long term care program that the federal government contracted with Walgreens and CVS; but those aren't the only Kentuckians that are receiving doses from other places. The federal government is also providing doses to the Bureau of Prisons, to VAs, to Department of Defense workers. And today we got numbers that in addition to the 401,264 that have been vaccinated through the programs we've talked about, another 18,244 Kentuckians have been vaccinated according to the federal government. The vast majority of that of the 18,244 are from the VAs that have vaccinated almost 16,000 Kentuckians, so we appreciate that. So when you, when you add it in word about 419,500, just a little over that, Kentuckians that have had at least their first dose. We are really close to 10% of our total population that has been vaccinated and certainly when you remove 18 and under or 16 and under that can't be vaccinated, you know that's about a million people, so the numbers are better there. But again, everything we're getting, we're getting in people's arms. We're also working to be intentional, knowing that we need an equitable rollout of this vaccine but that also there is real hesitancy out there. We're not being impacted right now by that hesitancy in scheduling appointments. But if we want to get to immunity, and if we want to make sure underserved populations and other groups are getting vaccinated at the rate that they should, that that other populations are, we know we have to be addressing this on the front end. And that's why we do some programs where people who are trusted by their communities are asked to take the vaccine so that they can be a real life example, and to share with their community, that this is safe. So, during this last week we've had two separate times where we've had faith leaders that have come to Frankfort, that have been vaccinated, and that are sharing their stories with their flocks, talking about the safety of it. It's been a special experience, they helped us plant the flags today to honor the newly lost, but to see people who have also dedicated their lives to service stepping up and wanting to show people that it's safe. James put together a short video, let's give it a look, I hope you enjoy it.
Video: Hi, I'm Barbara Hager, the pastor of Broadway Temple and Design Church in Louisville, Kentucky. I’m Bishop John Stowe and the Catholic Diocese of Lexington. Hello, I'm Bernetta Cosby from St. Stephen Baptist Church. Rabbi-Shlomo Litvin, Chabad of the Bluegrass. Hi my name is Philip Lotspeich I'm with the Presbyterian Church USA, I just got my first vaccine shot. Hey ya’ll, I did it, I just got my shot. I think you should too. I just received my vaccination for COVID-19 and hope all of our faithful will do the same. I just got my vaccination and I'm encouraging everyone to get theirs, whenever possible. I just received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine, and I'm encouraging each of you to do the same, so that we can protect one another, and our communities. Trust is an integral part of the medical process, and today, we're working with the governor to inspire that trust in the community. So I got my vaccine, I hope you get yours, and trust the process, believe in your community together and we can get through this. This promotes the common good and helps us to promote a healthier Kentucky. And I encourage everybody to go out and get it as soon as it's offered to you, because that's our way to get back at serving God, in the way that we want to. Governor Beshear has done a wonderful job in leading our community to think about each other. He has personalized losses that our state has experienced through COVID, and is trying to keep us on one team and one place as one community to make our state, our Commonwealth, more healthy, and to overcome this terrible challenge. You guys, we're almost through this pandemic, but we have to stay vigilant, the pandemic is still on the rise. Please wear your mask, social distance, stay safe out there. Be sure to mask up Kentucky.
It was exciting, and moving and having over the course of those two events, 50 different faith leaders that together reach hundreds of 1000s of people, was truly special. This is also something that came out of community conversations that we had, about how to build trust and how we can build trust, especially in communities that we need to reach, and that in the past haven't been treated right in vaccination efforts. And if I can, when a video is playing, is the one time I actually get to watch Virginia. You do an amazing job in conveying the emotion, and I know that's why Kentucky loves you so much.
Alright, in other good news, we continue to fill out our map on regional and local vaccination sites. I want to show you the map as we announced it last Thursday, which shows you some of the larger sites.
But after I'm done announcing the new regional centers, Dr Stack is going to talk to you about the local health department program. And when you overlay that here's what it looks like. As you can see, the map is filling up. And each one of those red pins is a local health department that has brick and mortar places in every county in their region. This is going to provide vaccine all over Kentucky. There will be limited numbers depending on the size of the entity that's getting it. But I hope that you see, we're building this airplane as we're flying it, the airplane is starting to look really good, and our efficiency of the airplane is already over 100%. But this, when you look at it, this is the structure we've got to have for the amount of supply that we want. If we were just happy having a structure that they could administer the amount of supply we had right now, shame on us for not working to be ready for that moment when we can get hundreds of 1000s of vaccines to get out to Kentuckians. Our goal is to be able to far exceed what we think we can do today, which is about 250,000 vaccines a week-- to get that number significantly up to where if they gave us enough vaccine for our entire population, our hope is that we could do it in a matter of weeks. That would be the greatest problem that we could ever ask for.
New deaths by county: 59 F Adair, 63 F Ballard, 85 F Bell, 29 F Boone, 79 M Boone, 82 F Boyle, 93 M Boyle, 93 M Breathitt, 72 M Calloway, 72 M Calloway, 51 M Campbell, 82 M Campbell, 87 F Carter, 60 M Casey, 75 F Fayette, 53 M Fayette, 86 M Fayette, 90 F Fleming, 68 M Franklin, 94 M Franklin, 53 M Gallatin, 62 M Gallatin, 85 F Hardin, 88 F Hardin, 81 M Hardin, 89 M Hart, 69 F Hopkins, 86 F Hopkins, 80 F Jefferson, 81 F Jefferson, 80 M Jefferson, 96 M Jefferson, 100 M Jefferson, 79 F Kenton, 77 F Laurel, 54 F McCracken, 65 M McCracken, 69 M McCracken, 63 F Marshall, 77 F Marshall, 71 M Meade, 80 M Meade, 64 F Mercer, 53 M Montgomery, 75 M Nicholas, 90 F Ohio, 88 M Trigg, 93 M Washington, 88 M Wayne, 87 F Whitley, 89 M Whitley
Good News.
1. The agency just reported today that the state's recordable non-fatal occupational injury and illness rate has fallen to the lowest point on record. The total recordable incident rate for all industries has fallen to the lowest level since the US Bureau of Labor Statistics began recording the data in 1996, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Program Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Report. So for 2020, based on 2019 BLS data, we were at 3.2 cases per 100 full time equivalent workers, for comparison that was 8.4 in 1996. What this means is this was the safest year, even in the midst of a pandemic, to be a worker in Kentucky.
3. Today we've announced the reopening of all Kentucky State Police post locations to the public to assist in the fight against the drug epidemic, through the Angel Initiative. KSP’s Angel Initiative is a proactive program designed to help people battle addiction, and it's available throughout the state. Anyone suffering from substance use disorder can visit a KSP post to be paired with a local officer who will assist them locating an appropriate treatment program. <...> KSP posts are open to the public Monday through Friday, 8am to 4:30pm and COVID-19 guidelines must be followed. In addition to seeking treatment, individuals may go to any KSP post to safely dispose of any drugs or contraband they may have in their possession without threat of arrest.
Vaccines: So what you see here is we will begin reporting, and updating on a daily basis, how many unique people have been vaccinated in Kentucky. That, we will show next to the total number of doses, first doses, of vaccine allocated to the state, and then you'll see a utilization percentage there. So the goal here is to show you for all the vaccine we receive, what percentage has been administered as a first dose to Kentuckians.<...> So, in this top chart you can see we've broken down the state program, those are all the allocations that came to us at the state level, and then we distributed out, or allocated out, to hospitals and local health departments predominantly to administer to Kentuckians. <...> Please remember, even though you hear that the quantities have been increased and the federal government said 16% last week, and an additional 5% this week, those are wonderful developments to have more vaccine. However, the doses we're getting are still 68,000 or so doses a week, it's gonna take a while to reach everyone who wants to be immunized. <...> So please, I know when you go to these sites, you make the phone calls, it feels like you're not able to get through. It's probably accurate for many of you, it's because we're only getting so much vaccine and the demand is so great. So please know they are vaccinating, they're using everything they're getting as quickly as they can. It's a matter of needing more vaccine to fulfill the demand right now, which is very large.
What made the state change the requirements to make sure only Kentucky residents are receiving the vaccine? -- We had people who lived and worked in other states coming over and trying to get in priority groups in our state that they didn't qualify for in their state.
Senator Robbie Mills today spoke to the very frustrations that you have mentioned that his constituents in Hopkins and Daviess county saying there's just no vaccines available, but he also said that they have a perception that Indiana is doing better than Kentucky, and that they're very frustrated by that. He also spoke to the need, what he perceived the need to be, more and better communication about vaccine availability from your administration. So I just would like for you to sort of speak to that perception that other states are doing better than us and also to his call for better communication. -- Well, we're a top 10 state for vaccinations, the last four weeks we vaccinated more people than we've received doses. If you go over 100% I think that's pretty good. I think in most statistics, we're ahead of Indiana, but I want Indiana to do well too. [...] And we've been communicating about supply, supply, and supply every day, you all have seen it. On our website we show exactly how many doses we get in and how many go out. Their providers have their amount, which is a public when they receive it, and they put it out. So we're getting it out as fast as we can. It's gone out, we believe, equitably across the state. In fact, in the beginning, rural Kentucky got more than urban Kentucky as we were directing it out towards healthcare workers. I think that there are multiple providers in the area that would say that they think that they are being treated fairly. But listen unfortunately a speech on the senate or house floor right now is in the silly season. I don't think they're going to get up and say anything positive. It's unfortunate but that's where we are but you know this is also a body that I hope will be more thoughtful, moving forward, on what they pass. You know, we had to go to court today to challenge three bills, one I'll give you an example was House Bill 1. It basically said no more the Governor's executive orders, “CDC guidance” is now the law. They didn't say which guidance, there are 174 CDC guidance documents. <brings up a stack of documents to the podium> Now, I guess every business would have to look through all 174 of these, which multiple ones will apply to them and try to figure out what they do or do not have to do. I mean we can't defeat a vaccine with this . What should you do to keep people safe? This . We’ve got to have clear consistent rules, and that's what the Supreme Court said, you know, just a couple months ago. So, whether or not people want to pull authority for me, let's be smart and how we address the virus and not say to our businesses “It's on you now here's all the paperwork”
Good afternoon everybody, good afternoon Rachel. It's four o'clock, on Wednesday, that time we come together to remember that we're gonna get through this, and we're gonna get through it together. I'll start by thanking everybody for allowing me to move yesterday to today, we all struggle at times through this pandemic, and admittedly I just needed a day. But I am back at it, I’m ready, and we are going to defeat this thing together. We have a light at the end of the tunnel, it's a big, bright light, it's going to take us time to get there so continue to mask up, continue to do all those things that protect people and as you'll see, our numbers continue to look better and better with the exception of those that we are losing, which are result of that dramatic increase we experienced.
Let's start with good news, we need good news in our world and let's remember we can, rightfully so, we get caught up thinking all day long about the pandemic but there's still lots of good things going on.
First is worker safety. So I speak often about the importance of Kentucky's workforce, which is the backbone of the middle class, the glue that binds most of our communities together. It's also so many of you, our families, how you put food on the table. My administration is committed to providing well paying opportunities for growth and retirements marked by dignity and security. Above all, we treat all honest work as worthwhile, and we treat our workers with respect. The hard working folks at the Kentucky Labor Cabinet have played a major role in ensuring we're living these values during the pandemic. Most often, I talk about unemployment insurance or those who play a role in keeping us safe by investigating reports of non-compliance to the Kentucky safer hotline. But the cabinet is also responsible for enforcing Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHA) at workplaces throughout the Commonwealth. Those are the standards that are supposed to keep us safe, that identify unsafe hazardous or unhealthy environments, that stops practices that pose dangers. And when companies don't live up to those standards, cite them, and help them, and provide them the incentive to ultimately get things right, to make sure all of our Kentuckians are safe on the job. So today we’ve got some really good news to share on that front. The agency just reported today that the state's recordable non-fatal occupational injury and illness rate has fallen to the lowest point on record. The total recordable incident rate for all industries has fallen to the lowest level since the US Bureau of Labor Statistics began recording the data in 1996, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Program fiscal year 2020 annual report. So for 2020, based on 2019 BLS data, we were at 3.2 cases per 100 full time equivalent workers, for comparison that was 8.4 in 1996. What this means is this was the safest year, even in the midst of a pandemic, to be a worker in Kentucky. It means that our labor cabinet is doing it right but it means so many of you all are doing it right too. This is what happens when we enforce standards. when we create the right framework to ensure that our folks show up and they're productive, they're enthusiastic, and that they are also safe. So, 2020, having the lowest injury rate since it's been recorded, in 1996, is some pretty good news. It means a lot more people made it home at night to their families, and a lot more people made it home happy and healthy, and that's what we want every day here in the Commonwealth. We have seen a steady decline over time and let's keep it up. Let's get to the point where our workplaces are so safe that no one is ever injured. That sounds like it may be a tough task but I believe both our people and our employers are up for that challenge.
Second piece of good news. The Justice and Public Safety Cabinet today is awarding more than $2M in grant funding from the Federal Violence Against Women Act STOP Formula Grant Program to 28 agencies across our state. This federal funding allows our state to better support the insurmountable work provided by victim advocacy services, law enforcement agencies, and local units of government to victims of violent crime. Funds are received from the Office on Violence Against Women, a component of the United States Department of Justice. The Office on Violence Against Women require state administrative agencies allocate 25% for law enforcement, 25% for prosecutors, 30% for victim services, 5% for state and local courts, and 15% for discretionary distribution. The funding should be used for projects that serve or focus on adults and youth who are victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Some of the programs funded by the grant include, and these are a bunch of great organizations that I had a chance to work with as attorney general, and the work they do is so appreciated and here supported. Chrysalis House has been awarded $51,830 to continue funding a domestic violence therapist to ensure physical and emotional safety is established, prior to treatment for women who have experienced intimate partner violence. Merryman House Domestic Crisis Centers has been awarded $56,264 to increase safety of domestic violence survivors in the Purchase Area Development District by sustaining and improving collaboration efforts with local law enforcement and prosecution. The Nest Center for Women, Children, and Families has been awarded $116,780 which will allow it to continue to hire contract attorneys who will provide legal services at no charge to families, obtaining an order of protection against their perpetrator in 18 different counties. We’ve got to work together to stop the scourge that is domestic violence, to make sure that our people are safe. The long term ramifications go far beyond just the partner, the physical and emotional scars that it leaves on our children is something we all ought to be committed to stopping. I believe in a world without domestic violence, without sexual abuse, without child abuse, and it should be attainable, just takes all of us continuing to work every day. And these $2 million to organizations that earn the money are going to help us to get there.
Alright, one other piece of good news, which is our Kentucky State Police Angel Initiative. Today we've announced the reopening of all Kentucky State Police post locations to the public to assist in the fight against the drug epidemic, through the Angel Initiative. KSP’s Angel Initiative is a proactive program designed to help people battle addiction, and it's available throughout the state. Anyone suffering from substance use disorder can visit a KSP post to be paired with a local officer who will assist them locating an appropriate treatment program. KSP launched the Angel Initiative in 2016, this was done by the previous administration, through funding from the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy. I committed that when I became governor we do the right things, and the right programs we build on. We wouldn't simply eliminate things or take action out of spite and we've lived up to that promise. The Angel Initiative was a good initiative created by our last commissioner of the state police and by our last governor. Reopening it to the public is the right thing to do and it's going to help people. KSP posts are open to the public Monday through Friday, 8am to 4:30pm and COVID-19 guidelines must be followed. In addition to seeking treatment, individuals may go to any KSP post to safely dispose of any drugs or contraband they may have in their possession without threat of arrest. One more program we can use to help those who are suffering.
So that's all good news. Aside from what we deal with every day in the pandemic there are lots of beacons of light out there, lots of people continuing to do good work even in challenging circumstances, and there's lots of people doing good work in working to defeat this virus. Our vaccination efforts right now are exciting to see. You walk into one of our vaccination centers and you see a workforce that is inspired and is moving. You see people clearly walking around with purpose. You see faith in action, and protecting other people. And you see people who've worked long shifts who are still smiling when that next person sits down because they're going to get their vaccine. We’ve got a short video here that recaps yesterday's opening of our first regional vaccination site at the Kentucky horse park, outside of Lexington and Scott County. Take a look, it's pretty special.
<VIDEO> This is an exciting day for Kentucky. Through this new and growing partnership with Kroger health, we will be able to vaccinate more Kentuckians as we received more supply from the federal government. We are here inside the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena in Lexington, where Kroger health is launching the first regional vaccination site in the state. Across the Commonwealth we are seeing efficiency pick up and pick up every single week. We are getting better and better at vaccinating people, which means for every Kentucky in your time is coming sooner rather than later. The last four weeks we've vaccinated more people than we've received doses from the federal government, meaning our only limitation at this point is supply supply and supply. But we can't simply sit back, we have to continue to grow our capacity so when we have those additional vaccines, when the manufacturing picks up, when we have a flood of these life saving shots of hope, that we are ready to get them out there and get them in people's arms as quickly as humanly possible. So let's continue to mask up, let's continue to engage in social distancing, and when it's your turn and your time, let's roll up our sleeves and get this shot of hope.
The individual you saw getting vaccinated there is one of our veterans. He has several health conditions, but wanted to step up and to be an example. We were all excited, we were all moved to see him get that vaccine. On vaccines, today we've got Dr Stack, he's going to talk through how we're gonna change our reporting, what you see online, each and every day to be a better indicator of how quickly we are getting the vaccine to new people, because that's really what we want to focus on. Some look at doses out there but when you get a second dose it's got to go to a specific person. What we are focused on is how quickly we can get people that first part of their vaccination as efficiency. Now, I will remind you that we get these doses primarily on Tuesday-ish, late Monday, early Tuesday. So, Tuesday, Wednesday, there's always going to be the biggest difference between our supply and how many people were vaccinated. But what you'll see from the reporting is by the time we get through that next Monday, seven days after it, we're vaccinating more people every week of the past four weeks, then we get supply. We're not gonna be able to do that much longer, it's from extra from the first couple of weeks as we were ramping up and that is very quickly being used up. Thankfully, we're gonna receive, or we're now receiving, about 21-22% more vaccine. This next week will be the first week we reached that full increase since the new administration took over in Washington. Dr Stack?
You can all relate to this, this is a video conference world-- I had three screens open and I couldn't get to it. So Governor, thank you very much. I have two topics that the governor would like me to speak about tonight. And then I'll walk us through that.
So, on our website we're going to change, and this should be updated tonight, we're going to change how we report the vaccines that are administered. Remember the single most important metric is how many people have been vaccinated, how many unique people have been vaccinated, because those are the persons who are on the road to protection from the vaccine. So what you see here is we will begin reporting, and updating on a daily basis, how many unique people have been vaccinated in Kentucky. That, we will show next to the total number of doses, first doses, of vaccine allocated to the state, and then you'll see a utilization percentage there. So the goal here is to show you for all the vaccine we receive, what percentage has been administered as a first dose to Kentuckians. Now, the other way to do this is to show all the doses, which include first dose and second dose, but we're committed to giving the second dose to everyone who gets the first dose-- that should happen as a matter of routine course. So the most important metric is who has started this journey, and received a first dose, which means they will be part of a two-dose immunization program and when they complete that they'll have the full benefit of the protection from the vaccine. And remember, if the third vaccine gets approved, if the Johnson and Johnson vaccine gets approved, and we're all cautiously hopeful that will happen later this month, that is only a one-dose vaccine. So again, in this paradigm that will be the metric that matters the most, is how many people have received their first dose, and therefore are on the path towards protective immunity from this disease. So, in this top chart you can see we've broken down the state program, those are all the allocations that came to us at the state level, and then we distributed out, or allocated out, to hospitals and local health departments predominantly to administer to Kentuckians. There's also the federal Long Term Care program, and so that's listed here is the LTCF Program, that was the partnership between the federal government and CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate licensed long term care facilities and assisted living facilities. Now, in this, you'll see 80,925 first doses, we had recaptured 13 trays of Pfizer, about 12,675 doses, back to the state program and reallocated it. And you’ll see the remaining doses in that program, they are working to do their second doses, and we'll go back for a third visit to finish up all of those nursing homes, and then they will use the remaining inventory to reach other populations and use up all of that. So, eventually, that will reach 100%, and then it will all be the state program going forward. You can also see in the lower table there that we will report to you on a week by week basis how many new vaccines we were allocated and how many unique persons were immunized that week. And the governor has already drawn attention to this, if you look down there at the week of January 12th, you can see we immunized 143% relative to the first doses. What that means is that backlog, that inventory that we did not use the first few weeks of the program in December, we used up very quickly once we swung into increased productivity in the month of January. Remember, I've said for a while, December was always going to be a challenge for a number of reasons. January was about bringing order to disorder. And now February is moving solidly into consistent, effective production and administration of vaccine and building a system that gives you confidence that you can sign up and get some clarity about when you may be able to be vaccinated, and then have certainty you will be vaccinated in a phased manner, which is what is necessary because of the quantities of vaccines we receive.
Please remember, even though you hear that the quantities have been increased and the federal government said 16% last week, and an additional 5% this week, those are wonderful developments to have more vaccine. However, the doses we're getting are still 68,000 or so doses a week, it's gonna take a while to reach everyone who wants to be immunized. And we have plenty of stories now, when health departments or vaccine sites turn on their scheduling, we find that, for example in one of the regions in the first hour that their phone lines were open they had 51,000 phone calls trying to schedule for the 700 doses they were given. In the first two and a half hours their phone lines were open 110,000 phone calls came in to try to access that 700 vaccines. So please, I know when you go to these sites, you make the phone calls, it feels like you're not able to get through. It's probably accurate for many of you, it's because we're only getting so much vaccine and the demand is so great. So please know they are vaccinating, they're using everything they're getting as quickly as they can. It's a matter of needing more vaccine to fulfill the demand right now, which is very large. And then I hope those who are maybe hesitant to receive the vaccine see how effective it is and how the others tolerate the vaccine so well, that other people will also want to follow along in the months ahead.
Last topic I want to talk about, . There's a small sporting event happening this weekend, the Chiefs and the Bucks should be playing with each other on the football field. Well you enjoy that game, for those of you who will enjoy, I need to ask you, please, please, please this is just like any other holiday or social event. You have to practice social distancing, you have to wear your masks, please. When people get together in private residences, in close proximity, that is one of the single most effective ways to spread this disease. We can't afford to have the disease spread now. With these mutations and these variants, every time we allow it to infect more people, it gives the virus the opportunity to mutate. It gives the virus the opportunity to learn how to defeat the antibodies that our bodies are forming based on the vaccines, or the natural infection. We just can't afford to have that. It dangers us all and could undermine the success we're also optimistic we're going to see in the months ahead as more people get vaccinated. So please don't hold any large gatherings.
Remember the current guideline was two households max and eight people or less. That was the current recommendation for the recent holidays and that still holds true now. It's good advice and I'd ask you to please follow it.
Six feet of distance or more between people.
Wear your masks at all times. It's difficult when you have parties because people eat and drink and you take your mask off and that's exactly what makes the infection easily spread. Please don't do that.
Have virtual Super Bowl parties. Enjoy the Super Bowl in the privacy of your own home. We're hopefully getting to the light at the end of the tunnel for this pandemic but if we take our eye off the ball, we can have more super spreader events and have more problems with more of these mutations and more spread of the disease.
So enjoy the Super Bowl this weekend. I'm not going to tell you who I would prefer to win, you can have your own favorites in that, but enjoy the game and do it safely. And please, there's a lot of wonderful stories out there. What I hear from folks go into these vaccine sites, there are smiles, there is clear, just unbridled happiness, in a way, perhaps, people haven't seen in a while because I think people feel empowered. They feel like they're able to take action, rather than feel like they're a passive victim of this disease, and that they're taking a positive step to bring it to an end. That's what we want to celebrate on and focus on-- is the optimism, the hope, the caring, and the kindness to all the good things about humanity. We could focus on all the negative sides too but ultimately, it doesn't help advance our cause and it doesn't help us rally together as a state, and as a community. So please, be good to each other, be kind, and we're working as hard as we can to get you vaccinated, and we'll do so as quickly as the vaccine qualities allow us. Governor, back to you. Thank you.
Thanks to Dr Stack, and everybody tune in tomorrow where we'll be announcing additional regional centers across Kentucky, building out our map as we go. We'll also be talking about local health departments, all of which are going to be getting a consistent supply for at least the next three weeks. Though that supply, remember, is limited and it's going to be dwarfed by the amount of calls, and interest. Again, that is a good thing. It means that we don't have the level of vaccine hesitancy we were worried about. We do have it in certain populations and we're going to work on that as we go in real time.
Positive cases today: 2,592 - That was about 100 cases more than this time last week, but significantly less than the two weeks before. Again, that is positive, in that we have significantly less virus than three weeks ago and we hope that this will be the first time by the end of this week that we have had four straight weeks, one month, of declining cases. Right now it looks possible at the very worst we think it will be close to what we had last week.
Probable cases: 861
Total confirmed cases: 369,519
Children Under 18: 416
We only have 106 red counties. Right now that's the fewest we've had in a while. We obviously need to decrease that.
Total tests conducted: 4,111,126 (PCR: 3,635,689, Serology: 108,611)
Positivity Rate: 8.53% - Shows you that this is real, it's not just a result of how many tests there are, we're seeing a decrease in the virus
Our hospitalization, ICU, and ventilator numbers are all really stable too. One’s up five, one’s down five, but again, we were able to take the steps we needed to, at a time when our healthcare capacity could have been overrun, like happened in so many other states-- we avoided that and now we've seen decrease.
Total hospitalized: 17,010
Currently hospitalized: 1,340
Total in ICU: 3,618
Currently in ICU: 368
On a ventilator: 171
Total recovered: 44,073
New deaths today: 51 - But the tough part about our days right now is the number of deaths. January was rough, it was our worst month, and February is going to be tough too. Today we're announcing 51 new deaths related to COVID-19, seven, or individuals 60 years or younger.
Total Deaths: 3,863
New deaths by county: 59 F Adair, 63 F Ballard, 85 F Bell, 29 F Boone, 79 M Boone, 82 F Boyle, 93 M Boyle, 93 M Breathitt, 72 M Calloway, 72 M Calloway, 51 M Campbell, 82 M Campbell, 87 F Carter, 60 M Casey, 75 F Fayette, 53 M Fayette, 86 M Fayette, 90 F Fleming, 68 M Franklin, 94 M Franklin, 53 M Gallatin, 62 M Gallatin, 85 F Hardin, 88 F Hardin, 81 M Hardin, 89 M Hart, 69 F Hopkins, 86 F Hopkins, 80 F Jefferson, 81 F Jefferson, 80 M Jefferson, 96 M Jefferson, 100 M Jefferson, 79 F Kenton, 77 F Laurel, 54 F McCracken, 65 M McCracken, 69 M McCracken, 63 F Marshall, 77 F Marshall, 71 M Meade, 80 M Meade, 64 F Mercer, 53 M Montgomery, 75 M Nicholas, 90 F Ohio, 88 M Trigg, 93 M Washington, 88 M Wayne, 87 F Whitley, 89 M Whitley
All losses are a loss for Kentucky. Let’s light those houses up green and let’s ring those bells at 10am. This is a reminder that we are thinking of the Kentuckians we’ve lost, their families, and their communities. It’s the color of compassion and renewal as their souls move from their bodies to a better place.
Racial breakdown of all cases: 85% White, 8.5% Black, 5% Multiracial, 1.2% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander
Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 94.3% Non-Hispanic, 5.7% Hispanic
Racial breakdown of all deaths: 87.9% White, 8.7% Black, 2.7% Multiracial, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% American Indian
Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 98.1% Non-Hispanic, 1.9% Hispanic
New deaths by county: 87 M Barren, 84 F Campbell, 67 F Christian, 78 M Christian, 86 F Daviess, 86 F Daviess, 87 F Daviess, 99 F Daviess, 83 M Daviess, 84 M Fayette, 79 F Fleming, 96 M Fleming, 73 M Graves, 77 F Green, 89 F Harlan, 73 M Harlan, 90 F Harrison, 73 F Hart, 77 F Hart, 71 M Hart, 77 M Henderson, 76 M Hopkins, 56 F Jefferson, 69 F Jefferson, 72 F Jefferson, 57 M Jefferson, 68 M Jefferson, 69 M Jefferson, 73 M Jefferson, 81 M Jefferson, 66 M Kenton, 91 M Kenton, 64 F Menifee, 75 F Menifee, 80 F Menifee, 87 F Menifee, 75 M Menifee, 90 M Menifee, 81 F Ohio, 80 M Rowan, 77 M Todd, 46 F Warren, 70 F Warren, 95 F Warren, 39 M Warren, 75 M Wayne, 69 M Webster
2. We had our very first Commonwealth Education Continuum Meeting today.<...> our charge is to close the gaps where we often lose our students the most, from early childhood to kindergarten, from K-12 to postsecondary, and then from postsecondary into the workforce. And that requires a strong public education system that is adequately funded, well supported, and cohesive from early childhood through post secondary life.
Tomorrow we're going to have some major announcements that should answer the question for everybody: “Where do I go?”. <...> So, our only limitation at this point, because our capacity already exceeds our supply, is how many first doses we can get from the federal government. But, we had three good pieces of news yesterday from the President's COVID team. First, we're getting our first increase in supply that we have had, for the most part in this pandemic except when Moderna came online. It has a 16% to 17% increase where we're going to get about 8,800 new first doses a week. <...>So up until yesterday we were only guaranteed week-to-week how much we get. <...>Having this three-week guarantee is going to help us<...>the federal government contracting to purchase another 200 million doses of Moderna and Pfizer, highly effective vaccines that they believe we will get at the end of the summer.
Gov talks about challenges in supply of the vaccine below.
That's a website up there https://www.GISaid.org. This website shows the genomic mapping of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the virus that's causing COVID-19. We have found now for the first time in Northern Kentucky, in Kenton county, two individuals who tested positive and have subsequently been found to have the B117 variant, that's the one that we believe was first found in the United Kingdom. That variant is more contagious.
we had already administered 88% of all the inventory given to the state program to use. The long term care facility program has had a slower rollout, but the state had given 88% of all the inventory it had to give out. Remember, we set the target on January 4 for 90%, that's pretty good three weeks and to be that close.
When you get the vaccine, it is normal for you to have a sore arm where you got the injection, that's normal, that's your body responding to the stimulus that's the vaccine. It is normal to feel achy, to feel tired, to feel a bit rundown, to feel like your energy's lower, it's even normal to have a low-grade temperature, those things are normal. That is your body's immune system responding as it is supposed to to a vaccine. <...> It's not a side effect, it's not a complication, it’s not a reaction, it’s your body's immune system responding as it should to the vaccination. So if you have that, please know that means your immune system is doing what it's supposed to do and is now going to be better primed to prepare you.
My question is going back to the roughly 17% increase in vaccine. What will the total number of doses that Kentucky will be getting? -- I believe we're going from, and we'll get you an exact figure, about 56,000 new first doses. [...] It’s going up 8,800 and so what we believe is we'll be able to vaccinate about 8,800 more people. And so with that, we'll be getting what? About 64/65,000. Supply will allow us to vaccinate between 64-65,000 people a week, those will be the first doses.
Do you all have any more information about the Kenton county individuals that you can provide? Were they connected in some way? Had they been out of the country? And also, is there any reason to believe the spread of that variant is limited to those two people in Kentucky right now? -- I'll ask Dr Stack here in a minute about the first, but no, the way this thing spreads, I think we should assume it's moved beyond those individuals. You know we are casting a wide net to find and and to check different positive tests for this. [...] But we've got to assume that given how infectious it is and how much more aggressively spreads that it's beyond the two individuals. And the CDC is saying this will be the dominant strain by the end of March, if not in early March.
This is for Dr Stack, does the UK variant, or any of the other variants seem to cause a faster pace of symptoms? And if you know that you were exposed, does it at all change your quarantine in any way? And can you talk a little bit, if there's time today, if not tomorrow, about double masking when wearing it? Thank you so much? -- [...] So, first of all, the double masking, if you have additional layers in front of you it reduces the transmission of things through it, so we already recommend three-layer cloth masks, that's already part of this. The best thing you can do is to stay more than six feet away from people because then you just aren't close enough to get exposed. [...]
Do any of the other variants that we know of seem to cause a faster pace, if you're going to get the symptoms, and does it at all change quarantine? -- [...] So no, the onset still seems to be five or six days for the typical person post-exposure. The typical person still is probably infectious about two days before they get symptoms. The large, alarmingly large, number of people probably 40% or more, appears not to ever have symptoms, which means there could be spreading disease but not show signs, and it doesn't change the quarantine. Everything would still seem to appear consistent that when your symptoms are resolved for 72 hours and you have had 10 days since you either tested positive or became symptomatic then you are freed from isolation. So, all those things remain the same and unchanged at this point.
Good evening Team Kentucky. This is Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman here to kick off our COVID update today in the press briefing with some really good news. Our administration, as you know, is committed to providing broadband internet connectivity to every Kentuckian and closing the digital divide is critical for economic development, education, and creating the jobs of the future right here in Kentucky. So I have an update on the Kentucky broadband initiative. One week into our speed test, I am happy to report that 31,400 households have participated so far, and that is great news. Just to give you an idea of a comparison, in our first week we have just about outpaced other states that began their speed test about six months ago. The counties that have the highest participation rates so far are Scott, Harlan, Caldwell, Woodford, and Lyon counties and so I want to say thank you to all of you for making this a priority and to make sure that the rest of our counties join you in that as well. We need everyone, no matter where you are from, to participate. This speed test is the first step to bringing internet connectivity to every Kentucky, it takes 30 seconds, and it is completely anonymous. So what we'll do is, we'll take this data and we'll build a map of Kentucky, highlighting the areas that are in the most need of broadband, and once that mapping is complete, we will work with partners both public and private to bring fast, reliable internet connectivity to the areas that are most in need. So I'll give you a reminder of this website so you can log on and do the speed test yourself. The website is http://speedtest.ky.gov/ Again, 30 seconds and completely anonymous. So I'm going to encourage all of you to keep up the good work and to make sure that you participate.
Second up, we had our very first Commonwealth Education Continuum Meeting today. I am co-chairing this initiative with President Aaron Thompson, from the Council on Postsecondary Education, and Commissioner Glass, from the Kentucky Department of Education, and our charge is to close the gaps where we often lose our students the most, from early childhood to kindergarten, from K-12 to postsecondary, and then from postsecondary into the workforce. And that requires a strong public education system that is adequately funded, well supported, and cohesive from early childhood through post secondary life. This work is critical, not just in the world of education, but in producing the jobs of the future, creating transformational change for our families, and building a stronger Kentucky economy of the future.
Thank you to Lieutenant Governor Coleman and let me join her in today thanking every single individual who is working or volunteering at any one of these vaccination sites. But let me also thank everyone who is continuing to perform PCR and other types of testing. Let me thank everyone out there who is still doing contact tracing; let me thank everybody out there that's still doing enforcement, which I know is not a fun job. Let's remember, as we move forward to defeat this virus it takes all of us continuing to do our part. Not everybody will be on the vaccination site, which I know is so exciting and we all want to be a part of, but let's remember we need all those other pieces too. Just like we individually need to not only get our vaccines but continue to wear masks until we've reached that immunity level, it takes all of us knowing that all of our roles are important, lifting each other up.
Alright so, on our virus update let's start by talking about the macro. This is still a dangerous time in America, virus levels are still at some of the highest that they have been since the beginning of the pandemic. And with some new variants, which Dr Stack is going to talk about, the risks of spread and of harm to you or your family are still at some of the highest that they've ever been. And our number of deaths is heartbreaking, mainly due to that exponential rise, but every day we have 1000s of cases, we're gonna have a significant number of deaths. But, both in our country and in our Commonwealth that trends are getting better, they are currently going in the right direction. By which we mean decreasing positivity rates, overall decreasing cases, and stabilization of our hospitalized Kentuckians-- those in the ICU, and those on a ventilator due to COVID. But just like when fighting that third wave, we talked about our success being fragile, and we have that one week bump to holiday gatherings, especially with these new variants out there, this trend that we really want to see-- a decrease in cases, a decreasing positivity rates and what that'll mean is decreasing number of deaths over time, that's really fragile too, maybe even more fragile, with the variants that are out there. I'm convinced that one of the reasons we are seeing trends going the right way is that every single one of you across Kentucky is doing more and is doing better, even if you were doing it right every other day. More people wear masks, more people trying to follow the rules. Let's be the most vigilant we've ever been, knowing that victory is around the corner, but we got to protect one another until then.
The vaccine update: top line is the same it's been, our one issue is supply. If we had three issues, they’d be supply, supply, and supply. We figure out the distribution, and we're going to continue to improve. Tomorrow we're going to have some major announcements that should answer the question for everybody: “Where do I go?”. Now that doesn't mean that there will be appointments, even when you have that one number that you know that you should be calling. Remember last week we vaccinated 82,511 new Kentuckians, even though we only received 56,000 new first doses. So, our only limitation at this point, because our capacity already exceeds our supply, is how many first doses we can get from the federal government. But, we had three good pieces of news yesterday from the President's COVID team. First, we're getting our first increase in supply that we have had, for the most part in this pandemic except when Moderna came online. It has a 16% to 17% increase where we're going to get about 8,800 new first doses a week. That is incredibly helpful. It's not nearly enough, we could be doing a quarter of a million vaccinations right now if we had the supply. But we'll take 16% to 17%. We're pushing the admitted new administration-- they've been in for what? Six days when they announced this, we will take 16% after six days. The second thing they're doing is going to help all of us, all the providers across the Commonwealth. So up until yesterday we were only guaranteed week-to-week how much we get. We’d get on the computer on a system called Tiberius and we'd wait on Tuesdays, to see how much we were going to get for the following week. We then have until the end of Thursday to tell the federal government everywhere to send it in our state, and then on Friday, we would be able to tell those providers how much they're getting. So they’d only have the weekend to prepare to go on Monday. Having this three-week guarantee is going to help us start planning ahead, it's going to allow our providers to be able to schedule, even three weeks out, we hope as we get this system up and underway.
The last piece of good news yesterday was the federal government contracting to purchase another 200 million doses of Moderna and Pfizer, highly effective vaccines that they believe we will get at the end of the summer. So what this says is, we will have a consistent supply which helps us plan, it’s going to be lower than any of us want, but we like seeing increases in it and we hope they continue. There has been some talk that at the end of this first quarter there may be some extra coming in under the initial contracts. And then it looks like there may be a significant amount coming summer to late summer and we've got to have the capacity, and the infrastructure, even if that is a million doses that we get at that time, to get it out as quickly as we can and that's our commitment.
Just wanted to talk about a few challenges that we've talked about before, it's all numbers based on supply.
Challenge number one is the amount of supply we get versus the number of providers who want to help. We have 1500 providers that are either fully signed up, or working on it to sign up in our system. If we used every single one of them at the moment, that each one would get about 36 doses. We're not even allowed to ship Moderna in groups under 100 and Pfizer is in groups under 900, so it's not possible. But the second piece of that is you'd have to call 1500 separate numbers hoping you are one of the first 36 callers. With the number one complaint being they want a consistent number and place for their region to go to, we're going to have to work on the system that, again, we're going to talk about tomorrow, that helps give certainty to people.
Second is, we have to do this, regionally. The number of counties we have, and their populations, don't provide an equitable way to do it. So there's this example today: Robertson County, which is a great place, it's the smallest county by population, if we sent the minimum number to Robertson County, 100 doses, to be equitable in terms of population, we'd have to send Jefferson 36,000. And then we're already at 60 plus percent of our allocation for that week, even though we're only at 19% of the population. Now when we look regionally, we can get equitable distribution in terms of population there. There are a lot of other areas that we have to ensure equity in the way we distribute this virus and we are being about doing that, especially each day that we move forward but from the population piece, to make sure rural Kentucky gets as much as urban Kentucky adjusted by population, a regional approach is the only way that that it can be done without picking certain counties that would just lose comparatively.
Third piece. As we move down the groups 1A to 1B to 1C there are 10s of 1000s of people in 1A. There's several 100,000, if not more, and in 1B and there's 1.2-1.3M in 1C. So the infrastructure that's needed when you're gonna have 40,000 calls in the first five minutes as it providers we move down changes. And so I hope everybody knows out there we may have to change providers and likely will, as we move to different groups. That doesn't mean there's not going to be a really important role for everybody, especially reaching targeted populations. We got to do this right, we can't waste a single vial. And we've got to make sure that as many people that call in it, at least get a response and that we don't pull everybody that we have on testing and tracing off of it, move them over just to vaccinations, and drop the ball on protecting people in the interim.
Alright, so that's a bit of an update, remember this is the most significant logistical challenge probably since the end of World War Two. We’re up to it, we're already outpacing our supply. We're going to need trust, remember we built the nation's model in testing, from nothing to what we had. We're going to need some patience, and in many ways we're going to have to think about the “we” not “me”. And as we move through, and in each time period we're in, to ensure we have the very best structure to deal with the groups and the size of the groups and the complex needs of the groups, that we're dealing with.
Alright, today's COVID report has some good and some bad, mainly we talked about earlier.
Positive cases today: 2,424 - Again, that number is far too high, but it is the lowest Wednesday in four weeks. When we look back to January 6th, there were 5,742 cases of COVID-19. Today, less than half of that. Overall that is a good sign.
Probable cases: 1,018
Total confirmed cases: 352,943
Children Under 18: 413
We have our fewest number of red counties in a while though they're still 111 of them.
Total tests conducted: 3,964,224 (PCR: 3,545,049, Serology: 106,506)
Positivity Rate: 9.35% - We like seeing that steadily fall.
Total hospitalized: 16,101
Currently hospitalized: 1,597 - Slightly up
Total in ICU: 3,459
Currently in ICU: 387 - Slightly down
On a ventilator: 225 - Slightly down
Total recovered: 41,925
New deaths today: 47 - We lost a woman in Harrison County, the first county where we had a case of COVID-19, on March the 6th
Total Deaths: 3,542
New deaths by county: 87 M Barren, 84 F Campbell, 67 F Christian, 78 M Christian, 86 F Daviess, 86 F Daviess, 87 F Daviess, 99 F Daviess, 83 M Daviess, 84 M Fayette, 79 F Fleming, 96 M Fleming, 73 M Graves, 77 F Green, 89 F Harlan, 73 M Harlan, 90 F Harrison, 73 F Hart, 77 F Hart, 71 M Hart, 77 M Henderson, 76 M Hopkins, 56 F Jefferson, 69 F Jefferson, 72 F Jefferson, 57 M Jefferson, 68 M Jefferson, 69 M Jefferson, 73 M Jefferson, 81 M Jefferson, 66 M Kenton, 91 M Kenton, 64 F Menifee, 75 F Menifee, 80 F Menifee, 87 F Menifee, 75 M Menifee, 90 M Menifee, 81 F Ohio, 80 M Rowan, 77 M Todd, 46 F Warren, 70 F Warren, 95 F Warren, 39 M Warren, 75 M Wayne, 69 M Webster
All losses are a loss for Kentucky. Let’s light those houses up green and let’s ring those bells at 10am. This is a reminder that we are thinking of the Kentuckians we’ve lost, their families, and their communities. It’s the color of compassion and renewal as their souls move from their bodies to a better place.
Racial breakdown of all cases: 85% White, 8.5% Black, 5% Multiracial, 1.2% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander
Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 94.2% Non-Hispanic, 5.8% Hispanic
Racial breakdown of all deaths: 87.8% White, 8.8% Black, 2.6% Multiracial, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% American Indian
Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 98.1% Non-Hispanic, 1.9% Hispanic
Long Term Care Facilities (PDF): 28 new residents and 14 new staff positive from yesterday, and 24 more deaths. It appears as a percentage of our deaths, Long Term Care is going down slightly. It is certainly the largest portion, that's why we're vaccinating it so quickly. And this is actually some of the fewer cases that we have had in a while in long term care.
Total facilities: 324
Total deaths: 2150
Active cases: 708 residents, 380 staff
Total cases: 16440 residents, 12057 staff
K-12 Update (PDF): Our school reports this week thus far, and that's just really Monday and Tuesday, we're still waiting for today. 703 new positive cases in students, 288 new positive cases in staff, 3,680 new quarantine students just in those first two days this week. 481 new quarantined staff.
Alright, now we've got Dr Stack to talk about a number of things, including the importance of continued testing, but also to specifically talk through the new variants, finding it in Kentucky, in two separate cases, and what it means for us, and the steps we ought to be taking.
Carefully worded my title as to not give them too much credit for video-recording their weekly and daily lives, as pareents of kids/teens/adults on the autism spectrum. A few noteworthy channels on YT: Kaitlyn&Kaidale: a single mom in her late 30s in Florida, she has a 12yr old mixed-race son who is nonverbal with classic autism. Of the videos I have watched, the boy loves swings and trampolines, vocalizes some words in 1 or 2 word utterances, a lot of vocal swimming and maybe some involuntary tics. The mom had done some of those meet-and-greets with Asa Maass. FatheringAutism: a self centered couple named Asa and Priscilla Maass, their college age son Isaiah and teenage daughter Abbie. Abbie is nonverbal on the autism spectrum with a boat load of developmental delays and needs 24hr supervision and assistance. Asa has been under fire many times for unpaid child support to an old exgirlfriend from when he and Priscilla separated after Isaiah was born, loss of his drivers license and inability to work with other people in both the workplace and other adults in general. Priscilla shills MLMs and Oils, struggles with her weight, and in many videos over the years there is an obvious lack of bond between herself and Abbie, also a very widely speculated idea that she might be neglectful in daily parenting and can't attend to Abbie's needs in a mom-is-the-parent kinda way, like something is off-putting or amiss with Priscilla's parenting abilities. DadChallengePodcast guy on YT loves ripping Asa and Priscilla to shreds in his annoying but true podcast videos. Our Landing Crew: An emotionally unhinged redhead in her late 30s name Stephanie and her husband Lonnie, they used to live in FL and for awhile congregated with Asa Maass until there was a social conflict or rift and they stopped acknowledging eachothers existence online. She has a gaggle of kids, at least 4 of whom are on the autism spectrum, 3 boys and 1 girl. Additonally she has a teenage daughter Danielle from her first marriage who is typical, and her first son Lonnie Jr isnt on the autism spectrum either. Moved her family from FL to Colorado during the height of the pandemic, doesnt understand what winter clothes are even a year later, so her children are often outside in thin jackets and no layers. Additonally Stephanie claims she has recently been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, but ranted and rambled in her video about it in an off-putting manner I hit the stop button and went back to listening to Eminem to clear my mind for a bit. The Wee Family: David and Stacey are a married couple in their mid 30s in Minnesota, with their 8yr old daughter Braylee, who is on the autism spectrum. She is mostly nonverbal but can speak when prompted, and often puts one finger tip at her lower lip when copycatting words or answering questions. She uses a DynaVox talking app on her ipad and loves listening to 21 Pilots. She has some intellectual delays that put her at more of a 4yr old level of skills and behaviour. They recently added a service dog into their family for her, but the dog is more of a Helper for emotional coping skills and helping cut back on stimming and eloping. They bought a used short school bus a few years ago and use that for driving sometimes. School for Braylee has been both at--home and at school, and sometimes she knows how to wear a mask but other times the mask is too overwhelming and she doesnt wear it. I don't blame her tho, she has so much more to do in her daily life than wearing fabric over her mouth and nose just bc that's what the adults want her to do (she doesn't understand Coronavirus anymore than a 1yr does). Autmazing: channel formerly named SomedayI'llSleep, Parents Cammie and Paul are in their late 30s with 5 kids, all of whom are on the spectrum. Both Cammie and Paul are also diagnosed as on the spectrum themselves in their adult lives. They live in a rural area of Minnesota with almost an acre of land for their house and big backyard. 2 of their daughters are more severely affected, one who speaks on her own volition but often with echolalia or verbally fixated on the characters from a 2009 era preschool TV show called Bubble Guppies, that would be 9yr old Maggie. The other daughter severely affected is Tessie, who is nonverbal but very outgoing and loves unicorns and ponies, dress up and pretend play, painting and coloring. She is 4yrs old. The other kids are Sadie who is 13, Patrick who is 8 and James who is 6. They did Transitional Kindergarten for James before Covid but due to schools closing they chose to do online school for Sadie and the boys. They once had a stillbirth many years ago between Maggie and Patrick, a baby named Christopher and they showed a video once of visiting his headstone on what would have been his birthday. Cammie and Paul claim Catholic faith but don't discuss it in very many videos. Other special needs their kids have include Sadie having allergies that have resulted in hospital stays, all the kids having asthma, and James was born with orthopedic malformations in his feet or ankles or tendons, resulting in a surgery as a baby and molded shoe orthotic AFO braces into his shoes, along with hypotonia (low muscle tone) and delayed gross motor skills. >>>>>>>>Cammie has gotten into a weird habit of dying her hair various colors every other day and every other week, along with what looks like a pink wig over her real hair, or she might be using Apple AfterEffects to color her hair bright pink in post-editing. Either way, the hair dying makes her look a little bit off her rocker and has the same buggy eyes as Crazy ExGirlfriend Meme. Perhaps it's that she is autistic and so she is trying to find herself in an ocean of many hair colors, but she might not totally get it that she's already losing subscribers probably because she is so off-putting. AutismDad: Vinny, a man in his late 30s to early 40s somewhere in England who has two daughters, one of whom is on the autism spectrum. Her name is Ashley and is 10 to 12 yrs old, has classic autism on the more severe end, needs 24hr supervision and is very loud with her stimming and screaming. It's a harder channel to watch just bc of her struggles. Vinny's wife doesn't seem too keen about sharing their daily life on YT and has opposed to being on camera many times. Older channels that don't post often: Kreed's World (he passed away a few years back in his teenage years but was on the more severe end of nonverbal autism); Our AUsome family (2 or 3 kids on the spectrum); Autism Family (they started the channel in 2015, live in the US, have 3 boys on the spectrum with varying challenges); NickyTVAutismVlog (genX couple with 3 teens, one of whom is 16 on the spectrum, has words to say but often needs supervision and extra help doing things); KEVIN CHAPMAN, a dad from the UK with an autistic teen son who has verbal and anxiety struggles and refused to go to school for almost 2 yrs due to emotional anxieties; Jason Love, a father with two kids on the spectrum Everett and Evaline, lives in Ohio and tried daily vlogging for a year but ended up choosing to stop, realized it was impeding family growth and getting in the way, so he uploads other content besides his kids. And finally, the best of the best of them all who has been posting videos on two accounts since the start of YouTube in 2006: kgaccount or AUTISM WARRIOR MOMMA. She is the bomb! Her name is Kimberly Oakley, I think she’s divorced, she has been documenting the struggles of being a single mom to 2-3 young adults and one son with thr most severe end of autism fathomable. His name is Jamie and he has autism, epilepsy and lots of sensory difficulties. Many times home hospice workers would abuse or neglect Jamie and his needs, she sued them and their health care agencies for damages and won. The state of California kept on pushing her to dump Jamie in a state hospital for the disabled, but in the long run its more cost effective and behaviourlly appropriate for Jamie to have full time caregivers in a modified single-wide trailer home built on the same property as the family home. He responds well to dogs and swimming. He used to be more outgoing with trips to a local TacoBell and ability to stay awake for doctor appointments, but over the years his self harming behaviours and epileptic seizures have disabled him even more and in practically all the videos, he is at home. He cannot do anything for himself, he cannot hold a cup to drink from, he cannot use an iPad on his own to commute, he cannot pull his blankets on himself at bedtime just the right way. He is essentially a 10month old baby in a 32yr old grown man's body. His mom is true warrior an advocate to not let him be put away where he would ultimately die in state care due to poor staff-patient ratios and lack of supervision. Did I miss any other channels/families? If so, add your own 2cents worth of a long-winded spiel. **1 dishonorable mention: Myka and James Stauffer are mentally unhinged psychopaths who wanted to do the White Savior Syndrome and adopt a special needs child internationally, and when they realized H* would need more help in the long run due to lack of attachment, poor language development and an autism diagnosis, they gave him up to a foster care agency. They bragged, boasted and gloated about it all and did fake-crying videos, followed by a vacation to SE Asia right after they no longer had a responsibility/burden to attend to. They are Psychopaths but it's a blessing in disguise bc H*** probably recieves better early intervention and therapies in another family, household, children's group home etc. Please post a new thread if you want to continue hating on Myka. I dont have the time to hate her for type a new thread about her, she is a witch and doesn't deserve any more attention for her blasphemous sins.
Vehicle renewal and driver license expires on 3/4... what's the process now to renew them?
And the cost if anyone knows? I'm keeping my current plate for just my one car, and I think that'll cost me then $61, and if what I read online is correct, it'll cost me $25.75 to renew my license (though some website said $27.25 hence why I'm a little confused). Is that all correct? I'd be paying for all this at a BMV, not online or mailing anything. Also, are the taxes already included in these fees as well or no? Now what about with COVID? Does that make this process take even longer? Again, if I'm understanding this correctly, technically I can wait until July 1st 2021 to renew both the vehicle and my driver license? I know these must all sound like stupid questions, but in the past few years, I know they've changed how we get our driver license's now and I just want to be on the same page as everyone else. Do you still get your new license day of at the BMV or do they still mail you it and they give you a temporary one in the mean time? Thanks.
New deaths by county: 81 M Bath, 78 M Carroll, 73 M Carter, 89 M Carter, 68 M Clay, 86 M Daviess, 89 M Fayette, 69 M Gallatin, 87 M Graves, 86 M Hardin, 77 M Hardin, 77 M Hardin, 82 M Hardin, 76 M Henry, 63 M Hopkins, 84 M Hopkins, 76 M Jefferson, 80 M Jefferson, 63 M Jefferson, 77 M Jefferson, 85 M Lincoln, 55 M Livingston, 68 M Livingston, 71 M Logan, 86 M Logan, 95 M Lyon, 61 M Madison, 89 M Mason, 86 M Mercer, 85 M Montgomery, 95 M Montgomery, 99 M Montgomery, 90 M Muhlenberg, 92 M Muhlenberg, 79 M Ohio, 90 M Ohio, 60 M Pulaski, 73 M Pulaski, 77 M Pulaski, 93 M Robertson, 52 M Rockcastle, 55 M Russell, 72 M Taylor, 76 M Wayne, 80 M Wayne, 47 M Whitley, 83 M Whitley, 62 M Whitley, 86 M Whitley, 74 M Woodford, 78 M Woodford
Historically the Kentucky National Guard has assisted in around Washington DC during presidential inaugurations. <...> The Kentucky National Guard will send approximately 270 personnel to the region.<...>
<...>The Guard has also been activated to assist in security here in Frankfort for any planned acts of terror that might be perpetrated by anybody out there.<...>
<...>The regional areas are going to open the week of February the 1st. The week before that we'll announce how many are statewide, and where they are, and how to sign up. <...> Here's another exciting piece. At that point, all these regional areas will be providing vaccines to anyone, all the way down through 1C. So in those regional centers, and that's everybody above 60, everybody who has a condition defined by the CDC that makes COVID especially dangerous, and all essential workers as defined by the CDC. This is going to open up the opportunity at these facilities, starting the week of February 1st for everybody who falls in those categories for 1B, or 1A. <...>
: Anyone in phase 1 will be able to begin scheduling appointments on the 28th. And again, Kroger will begin administering the vaccine during the week of February 1st at our first regional site.
: And in many communities, I realized this is not all <...> But in many communities, the smaller communities in particular, they are finding that the demand is decreasing already for phase 1A and in those communities, of course, they have fewer health care personnel, and the other ones, we'll have to keep at work until we reach you all.
* So Walgreens \[...\] completed 72 clinics at individual licensed facilities and that included 3,512 residents and 2,059 staff as well, as they have 23 licensed facilities left to go for their first dose. \[..,\] CVS, had 75 clinics last week, and they have 42 centers remaining, and the residents that they were able to vaccinate were 2,973, and the staff were 2,432
:
The appointment hours are between 8a-12p and 1-3p daily. We have 16 staffers working giving us a total of 125 appointments a day. This system will allow you to schedule, reschedule, and cancel appointments, and add appointment information to your own digital calendar; it's got one of those downloads and you can download that and save it. If you forget your appointment information, you can go to the website, where this is scheduled, enter your email address and it can email you your appointment information. And it also sends reminders to you the day before your appointment is scheduled so you don't forget about it.
Now with respect to the Continuing Assistance Act, remember that was the extra $300 a week, as well as extra weeks on the pandemic-related claims. The $300 a week, we believe, that we've got the programming done and we are testing it and that should start pushing out next week. And as far as the PUA, the Pandemic Unemployment Compensation claims and the Pandemic Extended Unemployment Compensation claims, those were the ones that had only 39 weeks and ran out Christmas week, Congress gave us an extra 11 weeks. Those are now programmed in. So we believe that you can go in and start claiming those within the next week, even if you had exhausted your previous weeks, you should not have to open a new claim. Again look for any more information on the Kentucky Career Center website.
[Amy] had mentioned that 16 staffers are manning the phone, so to speak, with these phone appointments. How many of them are actually specialists who can actually fix claims? On top of that, how many claims have been processed that on average per day, and per week. And with the fraudulent claims, could they be mistakes or ID issues, and if so, what's being done to let those folks know? -- We're gonna send those five questions over to Amy.
Okay. Hopefully I got all those down I'm not sure I did. I do believe the 16 staffers are people who can fix claims, so you should be able to get the assistance you need if you make one of those appointments. Now the average per day and per week, I don't know that but we can drill down and see if we can get that. ID issues: Whenever a claimant files a claim, and if they fail initial validation, there is an automatic online validation process where you answer some questions about your history. And if you fail that, you were given notice that you failed and you are given the opportunity to upload documents. You have a certain amount of time to upload those documents, we have not been strictly enforcing that, some people have been able to do it. We are going to start moving to a process where we are trying to close out some of the old claims. So if you don't upload your ID documents that have been requested within the requested amount of time, you will get a denial of your claim. <...> that then triggers appeal rights. So there's various levels there where you are given the opportunity to validate online, to upload documents, given multiple opportunities to upload documents, and if you have trouble with that and never do and get a denial you can establish your identity on appeal. <..>
What would you say to the people who are still reluctant to take the vaccine? [...] -- [...] What I'd say to them, is it safe. I've taken the vaccine but more than that I watched one of the people I love most in the world, my wife, get the vaccine standing right next to me. Maybe in the last couple weeks with all the terroristic threatening that's out there, you know, I realized, more every day how special having her in my life is, and to be confident enough in this vaccine to recommend it to her. I recommend this to my family, I recommend this to people I care about, and I've taken it in myself. I think what you're gonna see as we move forward is more influencers, faith leaders, and others stepping out and working with us.
So CVS and Walgreens have only administered 29% of the total staff received at long term care facilities. I think I heard earlier in the update that there are only 23 facilities left to get their first dose. My question is on willingness among residents and staff at these places to get the vaccine contributing to the slow pace of rollout? [...] -- Sure. So the doses that we show, that have been provided to CVS and Walgreens, also include second doses. So, when we get through all of them and then multiply by two that will be the number of doses from Pfizer that they will give. You're right though that it looks like they're going to be a certain number that are there that do represent individuals we at least believed were in long term care as residents, or as staff, that said “No”. So, yes, it does, if we schedule 12 clinics in one day-- and you are limited in many ways, because you have to go to the clinic, you can't set something up where people are coming to you when it's long term care, and a certain percentage of people say “No”, then you are going to do fewer vaccines that day.
Good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon, Virginia. This is four o'clock on Thursday, the last time we'll come together live this week. And remember that we're gonna get through this, and we're gonna get through it together. We have a lot of information today. My guess is that we will go over the hour, but it's important to get it out. Some exciting information first on economic development, then a another tough COVID report, but a little lower on cases than the last couple weeks but a really hard death count today, and then a whole lot of information on vaccines, in a couple of different ways, and I think most of that information is pretty exciting, and then we'll make sure that we also continue to explain what some of the various numbers that we post mean, and what we have control over and what we don't.
But let's start out with some really positive news for the Commonwealth. Today, we announced another great economic development project for Kentucky, and one that signals a shift towards the future of the automotive industry. Leaders at Hitachi Automotive Electric Motor Systems America are establishing a new 200 job operation in Berea to produce motors for electric vehicles manufactured by Honda of America. This new business is going to provide quality job opportunities for those in Berea, and in Madison County, and around, with an average hourly wage of $27 including benefits. It also positions us, as a state, to not only better serve the automotive industry which has so many facilities in Kentucky, but to be on the cutting edge of the future of that industry. Not to be a provider of parts of the past, but making sure that we are ensuring the future of our automotive jobs here in Kentucky. This new Hitachi subsidiary was established in Kentucky in March of this year, and company leaders work diligently over the past 10 months to navigate the challenges caused by this pandemic to make this a reality. The project is going to use a sister facility, in Berea already, to begin operations and work is being done right now to renovate that space. The company has created 20 jobs already and that's going to grow to about 200 as production begins in 2022, or early 2023. Hitachi has been a great partner and a great company in Kentucky for years with four facilities, currently operating in the state. That’s two manufacturing plants in Berea and manufacturing and warehouse operations in Harrisburg. I'm thrilled that this company has such a positive view of our workforce and of it being a great place to live; that they continue to expand and even pick us for some of the most high-end and hi-tech parts of their business for the future. Long term commitment of companies like Hitachi reiterate what we already know-- that we have all the tools to build a brighter future, and a better economy, if we take advantage of the opportunities we have before us. I'd like to welcome Hitachi Automotive Electric Motor Systems of America to Team Kentucky. I can't wait to see what the future has for this company, and think about it, folks in the midst of a pandemic, we have a next generation company that's going to open up and employ 200 folks in Berea. That means that we can fight for our future, even while we're fighting this virus.
Alright, the second announcement is about activation of the National Guard for help during inauguration in Washington. The peaceful transfer of power is one of the bedrocks of our democracy. Historically the Kentucky National Guard has assisted in around Washington DC during presidential inaugurations. But given the attack, the January 6th attack on our US Capitol, on lawmakers, that domestic terror attack that took the lives of Capitol Police, more of our soldiers and airmen have been requested to be there and we have said, yes. Absolutely, yes. It is our job, it is our duty to provide these great Kentuckians to ensure that peaceful transition of power occurs, and to stand up to domestic terror when we see it. I'm proud that our guardsmen and guardswomen will be there to protect our nation, and to ensure safety during this period of time. The Kentucky National Guard will send approximately 270 personnel to the region. These brave men and women, who proudly serve this Commonwealth, are going to proudly serve in Washington DC over the inauguration. Adjutant General Lamberton and I are grateful to the families, and employers of the service members who provide unwavering support.
Additionally, an announcement, but we're not going to provide any further details that the Guard has also been activated to assist in security here in Frankfort for any planned acts of terror that might be perpetrated by anybody out there. We will have the sufficient resources, we will be prepared to ensure that what happened in the US capital does not happen here in Kentucky. That's our commitment, and we'll be ready.
Our COVID update today:
Positive cases today: 4,084 - But that is down from this day last week and the week before.
Probable cases: 962
Total confirmed cases: 317,345
Children Under 18: 504
I believe we have cases in all but one Kentucky County, a lot of other counties on here. Eastern, Western, northern, South-Central Kentucky. It should just tell everybody that it is everywhere. And at this point, if you didn't want to wear a mask before, wear it for your own personal safety. Everybody should be wearing a mask when they are indoors around people outside of their household, and you ought to be carrying one with you outdoors, at any time that you would come within six feet of other people. You’ve got to do it. With what we're seeing right now, it's the most effective tool of fighting this virus and prevents any other steps from having to be taken. If you are a business, enforce that mask rule right now. If you don't, the likelihood that someone with COVID is spreading it in your facility is higher now than it has ever been. And if we do have a mutated virus that is spreading 50% or more aggressively right now, the risk is much higher than it's ever been. Do it for the safety of yourself, of your workers, of your customers.
Total tests conducted: 3,709,482 (PCR: 3,378,562, Serology: 104,306)
Positivity Rate: 12.34%
Total hospitalized: 15,022
Currently hospitalized: 1,661 - That’s down 41 from yesterday.
Total in ICU: 3,312
Currently in ICU: 409 - That is up six to 409. When we look at our ICU, there are some regions we're concerned about, but still capacity throughout the state, while it could change quickly, we are not where say Los Angeles County is, which is absolutely full, and what we are seeing in some other states but again with numbers this high, that can change and change quickly.
On a ventilator: 196 - 29 fewer Kentuckians on a ventilator, 196, though, that's not always the result of a good outcome
Total recovered: 39,998
New deaths today: 51 - Hard day today on deaths, 51 new deaths that we're announcing that COVID-19 contributed to here in the Commonwealth. That puts us past an awful milestone, we now have 3,042 Kentuckians that we have lost to this virus. We'll be working on a plan over the next couple of weeks to again honor those that we've lost. It felt like just the other day that we were on the front steps of the Capitol after we lost our 2,000th Kentuckian and we reached 3,000 far too quickly. Please think about these families, think about the toll that this has taken. Please let's do what it takes to defeat this virus and that's whether you're up here rethinking legislation or whether you're in your community on what you can do. Losing over 3,000 people- I mean we're at war, we are absolutely at war. We are suffering more casualties and most wars we've ever followed in. Let's treat it like it is going to be hard.
Total Deaths: 3,042
New deaths by county: 81 M Bath, 78 M Carroll, 73 M Carter, 89 M Carter, 68 M Clay, 86 M Daviess, 89 M Fayette, 69 M Gallatin, 87 M Graves, 86 M Hardin, 77 M Hardin, 77 M Hardin, 82 M Hardin, 76 M Henry, 63 M Hopkins, 84 M Hopkins, 76 M Jefferson, 80 M Jefferson, 63 M Jefferson, 77 M Jefferson, 85 M Lincoln, 55 M Livingston, 68 M Livingston, 71 M Logan, 86 M Logan, 95 M Lyon, 61 M Madison, 89 M Mason, 86 M Mercer, 85 M Montgomery, 95 M Montgomery, 99 M Montgomery, 90 M Muhlenberg, 92 M Muhlenberg, 79 M Ohio, 90 M Ohio, 60 M Pulaski, 73 M Pulaski, 77 M Pulaski, 93 M Robertson, 52 M Rockcastle, 55 M Russell, 72 M Taylor, 76 M Wayne, 80 M Wayne, 47 M Whitley, 83 M Whitley, 62 M Whitley, 86 M Whitley, 74 M Woodford, 78 M Woodford
The 68 year old woman in Clay County was a healthcare worker. Remember these don't all happen on the same day they go through our process to where we ensure that indeed COVID-19 was a contributing factor to their passing. Folks, we're almost halfway through, that's, what this virus has done to us at least today.
Racial breakdown of all cases: 84.9% White, 8.6% Black, 4.9% Multiracial, 1.2% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander
Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 93.9% Non-Hispanic, 6.1% Hispanic
Racial breakdown of all deaths: 87.5% White, 9.1% Black, 2.7% Multiracial, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% American Indian
Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 98% Non-Hispanic, 2% Hispanic
And today we have a memorial. And this is another person that I knew personally, whose family I knew personally, whose son I talked to on the phone and actually even texted me the other day, just making sure that I was safe. So today we share the loss of Lewis Bass known to many in Louisville, and throughout Kentucky as Sonny. He was 99 years old. Everybody in Louisville knew Sonny, they did, he was a beloved community leader who was always ready to jump in and help others. His granddaughter Anna said his true loves were his family, UofL, and giving back to his community. And that was apparent through his work and philanthropy efforts. Sonny was born in West in the West End of Louisville, and dedicated his life to helping the entire city succeed. He was a three year football Letterman and a two year Letterman in basketball at the University of Louisville, before serving his country in World War Two. When he returned to Louisville, Sonny took the first step in his many business ventures, which included co-founding what is now known as Humana. Sonny was a gifted tennis player he played competitively into his golden years. He was ranked number one in the seniors tennis in Kentucky for 10 years and singles and doubles and won a gold medal at the Maccabi games in Israel in 1986. He played on Louisville’s tennis team, which took home the national title in 1989. But his greatest achievement was meeting Gladys, his wife of 74 years and beginning the family he loved so much. Gladys, Sonny, and many other family members were infected with COVID, I remember when that happened, but unfortunately, it hit Sonny the hardest. Despite the efforts of those at Baptist East Hospital, he passed away on December 11th. Gladys is recovering and thankful for her family. She's thankful her family was able to locate caregivers to help with her recovery despite the challenges of the virus. Sonny’s special, not only did he accomplish so much professionally in his community, my goodness, look at that family. But he also made everyone who came into contact with him smile. You'd often be seen making dogs out of beads he carried with him for his children, or staff at restaurants, or treating those he saw to a quick magic trick just to brighten their day. He lived by the motto “It only takes a minute to give a little joy and see a smile.”. Anyone who knew Sonny can't help but smile when they think of him-- great all around man. Today we lift up Gladys, his entire family, including Steve and Terry. It's a huge loss for them in the entire, not just community of Louisville, but for the state. So today we mask up for Sonny.
Alright, now for good announcements. I think we need some of that positivity, and some of these are exciting. So first, let's talk about vaccination of K-12 personnel, our educators, who agreed to be vaccinated. You may remember that when we talked about making this group a priority, so our schools can be open safely, we set a goal of starting those vaccinations the week of February the 1st. I'm excited to report that our vaccination efforts are increasing at a rapid pace and that has allowed us to not only do the planning, but to start some of these vaccinations. And today we can announce that we believe that we will have all of the K-12 personnel, that agreed to be vaccinated, through their first shot of vaccination by the end of that week we said we'd start February the 1st. This is really exciting. This means on something as important as vaccines, we're actually beating deadlines, maybe even getting them partially done before, we thought we would be able to start them. This is going to mean, with the second dose just a month after, that our educators are going to have real and significant defense against this virus for their own health. And after that second shot first week, or a couple of weeks of March. This is important. These folks have worked really hard when they've had to be virtual, they're asked to do a job where oftentimes they will come in contact with a lot of people, some of which have hard times wearing masks or social distancing. And I want to thank Dr Stack who's with us here today for making this a reality, and for, I don't know if he under-promised but he definitely overachieved with this one. So exciting news for educators.
Here's another exciting piece. At that point, all these regional areas will be providing vaccines to anyone, all the way down through 1C. So in those regional centers, and that's everybody above 60, everybody who has a condition defined by the CDC that makes COVID especially dangerous, and all essential workers as defined by the CDC. This is going to open up the opportunity at these facilities, starting the week of February 1st for everybody who falls in those categories for 1B, or 1A. So it is exciting. And to help us with this we have brought on a new project manager, kind of like Mark Carter was with contact tracing, that somebody already working for this administration that many of you know, that has done everything from running a sophisticated company to the city of Lexington. So let me introduce our project manager for this part of our vaccination effort, Jim Gray.
Governor, thanks very much, and I want to say that this is of course it's a tough and challenging project; but it's also a real honor that you'd asked me to be involved in it, and to help and assist Dr Stack and your team with such incredible work, that's really remarkable work that's already been done. The work that's been done to get us to this point is nothing short, as I said, of remarkable. And we want to thank Dr. Stack for continuing to lead us as a critical partner in our delivery system that's going forward. This is all about Team Kentucky delivering on an ambitious life-saving project. Now, the team that will be moving forward, Governor, as you know, will be coordinating with the Department for Emergency Management, Kroger, as you've mentioned, and other partners to establish regional hubs to vaccinate as many people as possible, as the vaccine quantities increase over the next few weeks and months. Now, as you've already said, I'm just gonna dig into this just a little bit more some of the details on the Kroger arrangement. First, new shots will be administered beginning the week of February 1st at our regional sites, that’s what Kroger will be helping us stand up. Now this regional system will grow over time to reach even more Kentuckians. We will not be announcing specific sites today; but let me tell you what we are doing, as we speak, we are working to get sites evaluated and secured, and we'll be releasing more information in the coming weeks. Importantly, as you've already said, we are committed to ensuring equitable distribution of the vaccine, every Kentuckian will have access to the vaccine, and everyone will have their turn. We'll be starting with regional high-volume sites and over time, Kroger's existing network will come online. There will also be a federal program that will come online which will expand our volume even more, bringing the vaccine as close to everyone's homes as possible. Now details will be available as we know more about the number of doses that Kentucky will be supplied and when. And that's a process that Dr Stack will continue to guide and lead. And importantly, you’re going to hear from Kroger's Megan Brown in just a minute, we are creating tools to ease the process of getting an appointment. Building a registration website where Kentuckians can go to determine when they're eligible for the vaccine and to schedule appointments. We'll also be establishing a hotline so citizens can make a phone call to find out when they're eligible, and to schedule an appointment as they become eligible. Our plan involves announcing our first regional site, and launching the website and hotline on January 28th. Anyone in phase 1 will be able to begin scheduling appointments on the 28th. And again, Kroger will begin administering the vaccine during the week of February 1st at our first regional site. Now remember, and I'm coming to closing here, while we're doing our best to make getting your vaccine as simple and seamless as possible. This is going to take some time and our system relies on the speed of the vaccine manufacturers and releases from the federal government. So we ask, we continue to ask, for your patience. To say it one more time again: everyone will have their turn. This project, announced today, will get the vaccine in every arm that wants it as quickly and safely as possible. Meanwhile, as the Governor has said routinely, keep wearing your masks, practice social distancing, and washing your hands. Back to you Governor.
Thank you. Secretary Gray made a really good point there, that we can build any infrastructure, but how quickly and how many people we can vaccinate depends on how much the federal government gives to us. Last week, we provided more vaccinations than we received in doses because we still had one from the week before, but there's going to be a point where we are just strictly limited by how much the federal government provides, and I'll go to how we learn about what we get and when we learn in a minute; because we've got Megan Brown, from Kroger, who has been, again, an amazing partner to us throughout the course of this pandemic, helping us build the critical infrastructure we need. I want to thank her, thank Kroger, and turn it over to her.
After 28 days, if you have not received your driver license or identification card, visit our website; www.bmv.ohio.gov or call 1-844-OHIO-BMV (1-844-644-6268) to check the status of your card. If you have applied for a driver license or temporary instruction permit, this document will allow you to operate a motor vehicle. Figuring out the steps to take to apply for a new driver's license can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. DMV.ORG has gathered all the information you'll need to make getting your license as easy as possible. Renew - Receive a new registration and validation sticker.; Replace - Receive new plates, registration, county identification sticker(s), and validation sticker.; Exchange - Purchase a new special plate and/or check availability of personalized combinations or return to stock plate. You will receive a new validation sticker, county identification sticker(s), and a plate (mailed separately). If you are on active duty and are currently away from the state of Ohio, you and your dependents may file for a replacement, and the BMV will send your new license by mail. To get started with your application, follow these steps: Request your out of state Operator license replacement by mail package. This can be done by visiting the BMV Customers are encouraged to check in online ahead of time at bmv.ohio.gov. COVID-19 cases in Ohio have surged in November, with 144,304 reported so far this month. That’s more than double the Ohio REAL ID Driver's License. The OH BMV issues federally-compliant REAL ID driver’s licenses in addition to non-compliant licenses. As of October 1, 2021, only the REAL ID will function as federal identification for domestic travel and entry into federal and military buildings—a standard license will not after this date.. You have the choice to apply for a non-compliant license or If your license has been expired for more than six months, unfortunately, you’ll have to get a temporary permit (TIPIC) and then complete the driving and maneuverability test before you can get a full license again. Check out this guide to applying for a new license in Ohio if you’re 18+ Image source: Unsplash Driver License Renewal Current Ohio License. In an effort to ensure greater security and identity protection for customers, and to comply with federal regulations, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles introduced a new Ohio driver license and identification (DL-ID) card, effective July 2, 2018. Once issued, the license is valid throughout the state of Ohio for 60 days. If you do not get married within 60 days, then the license is no longer valid and you must reapply for a new license in order to get married. CLICK THE LINK TO YOUR CITY BELOW TO APPLY FOR A MARRIAGE LICENSE In most cases, you can only renew a license online if there are no changes to the information shown on the card. If you do need to update your photo, address, or other information, you may still need to renew your license in person.
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