Governor Beshear is recommending public school districts require unvaccinated students and staff plus those under 12 wear masks while in class. Most all K-12 public schools will be starting class over the next couple of weeks.
To further mitigate the possibility of in-person class interruptions, the governor said Monday school districts could take a further step. “School districts that want to optimize the likelihood that they will be in-person without any outbreaks, without large quarantines, if you want to optimize that, then you should consider universal masking both unvaccinated and vaccinated,” said Beshear.
Beshear said the positivity rate for coronavirus across the Commonwealth has increased five-fold during the month of July. While some states are moving forward with mandatory vaccinations for certain groups, the governor said that’s not yet being considered in Kentucky.
State Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack said health care workers across the Commonwealth may be feeling a great deal of frustration. Dr. Stack said more widespread vaccinations could have prevented the current uptick in Delta variant cases. “They’re exhausted from this because you know, tragically this is vaccine manageable condition. This should not be happening now, because at this point there is more than enough vaccine for every eligible American to have already been vaccinated. And so from the perspective of those healers on whom we rely, this is entirely a preventable tragedy and it is very frustrating to be in their shoes,” explained Stack.
Governor Beshear said the Delta variant should be a wake-up call when it comes to the need for further vaccinations.
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