Will Kentucky join other states in lifting pandemic orders? Not likely

FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX19) - COVID-19 continues to decline around the country, raising some early questions about when states will begin to lift a variety of pandemic restrictions, including indoor capacity limits and mask mandates.

The answer in Kentucky? According according to Gov. Andy Beshear, not yet.

The governor spoke on the issue in his Tuesday media briefing hours after the governors of Texas and Mississippi announced an end to pandemic restrictions, including their respective statewide mask mandates.

For reference, Kentucky and Mississippi are close to the national averages for per capita cases and hospitalizations, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. Texas remains around 30 percent above those averages. (Ohio comes in around 25 percent below them.)

All four states are doing much better than they were in early January.

But uncertainty surrounding new variants of the virus as well as a possible countrywide leveling off in the post-holiday decline had Beshear questioning the governors’ moves Tuesday as premature.

“Why would you take such a huge risk on human life right now with a light at the end of the tunnel?” Beshear posed, referencing the increased pace of the vaccine rollout.

Beshear also noted instances last year when Texas and Mississippi took “reckless” steps he refused in Kentucky — “and they paid the price.”

Earlier he described the “extreme consequences” of Texas’s loosened restrictions in late-summer 2020: “There were times Texas hospitals were so overrun that they were losing individuals because they couldn’t provide the proper care.”

He concluded: “We certainly are not going to act irresponsibly here in Kentucky.”

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky spoke anticipating the issue Monday, according to NBC News.

“I am really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19,” she said. “Please hear me clearly. At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained.”

So will Kentucky see an end to its mask mandate and capacity limits soon? Probably not. But the issue is potentially more complicated in the commonwealth than it appears.

[Update: A judge has granted a temporary restraining order against the laws described below. The article below continues as it was originally written.]

Beshear’s comments come one day after he announced a new executive order increasing capacity limits at Kentucky businesses from 50 percent to 60 percent.

He premised the order on the improved state of the virus in Kentucky, though it also happens to take effect — March 5 — just in time to avoid any immediate fallout from Senate Bill 1.

Passed on Feb. 2 over Beshear’s veto, SB 1 is one of three measures from a Republican-led legislature that aim to reduce a governor’s emergency powers. Specifically, SB 1 limits the duration of executive orders in a state of emergency to 30 days unless extended by the General Assembly. If the order suspends an existing statute, it must also receive permission from the attorney general.

Beshear is suing to stop the three measures. A judge granted a restraining order halting one of them — but not SB 1. The judge has yet to decide whether to grant a full injunction in the case.

Meanwhile, SB 1 took effect immediately upon passage. It was not retroactive, so the governor’s previous executive orders remain in effect for 30 days — or until March 4. But beginning March 5, those orders expire, and the governor cannot simply reissue identical orders.

The upshot: Kentucky might see incremental monthly policy shifts for some time.

That could represent a necessary workaround to legislative hamstringing. It could also reflect what the governor views as “responsible” is a bit of a moving target, depending on what the virus is actually doing on the ground.

As for the mask mandate, it remains to be seen what effect SB 1 will have. Last week, Beshear extended the mandate until March 29. He has extended it in regular 30-day intervals since the order was issued last July.

Kentucky recorded 1,080 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and 19 new virus-related deaths.

The state’s average positivity rate is 4.76 percent, its lowest mark since Oct. 18, 2020.

Some 684 Kentuckians are hospitalized with COVID-19, of which 178 are in ICUs and 82 are on ventilators.

The state has just 19 ‘red’ counties on its current incident rate map. None of them are in Northern Kentucky.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click here to report it. Please include title of story.

Copyright 2021 WXIX. All rights reserved.