Healthy at Work begins across Commonwealth

As Kentucky cases of COVID-19 appear to have reached a plateau, several businesses and industries were able to reopen Monday during the phase one Healthy at Work reopening plan.

Monday’s openings were the first businesses scheduled to reopen following healthcare last week. These included manufacturing, construction, vehicle or vessel dealerships, professional services, horse racing (no fans) and dog grooming/boarding.

Ohio County Judge-Executive David Johnston said during his briefing on Friday that while the state numbers have plateaued, he expects confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 to go up significantly in the next few days because Ohio County Health is doing massive testing including Perdue employees and the Green River District Health Department is testing in all their clinics beginning Monday.

According to GRDHD, as of Tuesday, there has been a total of 109 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Ohio County. Currently, 61 patients have recovered leaving the total number of active cases at 48. There are four patients who are hospitalized. There has been a total of 10 who have ever been in the hospital.

According to Susan Dunlap, Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services executive director of public affairs, there have been 282 positive cases of COVID-19 at the Perdue Farms facility in Cromwell. All of those patients testing positive are not Ohio County residents, she said. Perdue has had one employee death related to COVID-19.

“I’m very grateful for the open communication I’ve had with the leadership at Perdue. They did, just a few days ago, test the entire workforce and they had a positivity rate of about

7.8 percent or so, which is not as bad as we thought it could be," Dr. Stack said during a May 9 press conference with Gov. Andy Beshear.

Johnston urged Ohio Countians to continue to take precautions as the Healthy at Work reopenings continue.

“I will urge you. If you are going to these businesses (that are opening) go ahead and wear your masks and do as much social distancing as you can because we do not want to back set and start having to close things again. That would be awful,” he said.

Kentucky’s total number of positive cases as of Tuesday is 6,853 with 2,546 of those having recovered. Over 110,000 Kentuckians have been tested, and there have been 321 deaths as a result of the virus across the state.

The United States has had more than 1.3 million positive cases and over 81,000 deaths.

On May 7, Gov. Beshear released a new timeline for reopening more of the state’s economy but reminded Kentuckians it will not be business as usual anywhere until the coronavirus has been defeated.

The second round of reopenings is set for the week of May 18. Government offices and agencies can reopen on May 18. May 20 is when retail and funeral homes are scheduled to open. Houses of Worship were originally scheduled to open that day, but on May 8 a court ruling allowed in-person services to resume immediately. Restaurants can open with 33% capacity plus outdoor seating (with social distancing) on May 22.

On May 25, social gatherings of 10 persons or less can resume and barbers, salons, cosmetology businesses and similar services can open.

Bowling alleys, fitness centers and movie theaters can reopen on June 1. Campgrounds can reopen on June 11 and some childcare and low touch and outdoor youth sports can resume on June 15. Groups of 50 people can begin to gather and bars are scheduled to reopen on July 1.

All of the openings are subject to meeting specific guidelines.

The state’s complete guidance for reopening can be found at healthyatwork.ky.gov.

People should be prepared for state and local public health orders to be extended, amended or changed as needed to protect public health.

“Healthy at home has worked,” the Governor said. “And that’s not because it was a great plan. It’s because of what you the citizens of Kentucky were willing to do. You have saved lives. Each and every one of you who has made good decisions is a hero. Healthy at Work is a pretty intense set of guidelines, too, so if you can take that same commitment as Healthy at Home and put it to Healthy at Work then we can start restarting our economy gradually and in a safe way and not have to pause it. And not cause more spread of the virus.”