COVID-19 capacity restrictions lifting to 75% at most Kentucky businesses on May 28
Indoor and outdoor businesses in Kentucky serving fewer than 1,000 people can increase capacity to 75% at the end of the month, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday, as he announced 655 new cases of COVID-19 and six virus-related deaths.
Capacity restrictions right now for these businesses are at 60%. Beshear also said people gathering indoors “for private gatherings and for business” no longer have to wear a mask, as long as “100% are fully vaccinated.” That change goes into effect immediately.
Additionally, for businesses and events serving more than 1,000 people outdoors, Beshear increased their operating capacity from 50% to 60%. Both capacity increases go into effect May 28. Beshear said he expects the state will have no coronavirus capacity restrictions by July.
“We are getting so close,” he said. “If you can just give me a little patience, we’re coming up to a time where we can get fully out of this.”
By Thursday, 1,855,111 residents of the commonwealth had received at least their first vaccine dose. Fifty-two percent of people 16 and older statewide have gotten the vaccine. Nearly 60% of people 50-64 years old are vaccinated, as are 43% of people 40-49. Less than a third of people 18-39 are vaccinated. “We need to do better there,” Beshear said.
Though he has caught flak from some businesses owners and Republican lawmakers, Beshear set a goal in April to not fully relax restrictions on businesses until 2.5 million Kentuckians were at least partially vaccinated, though he has incrementally relaxed some. Fully vaccinated Kentuckians no longer have to wear masks outdoors in crowds of others, for instance.
Supply is ample, which is why Beshear originally said Kentucky could reach that goal well before July 4. But the pace of vaccinations is slowing. Kentucky would need to vaccinate an average of 11,144 people a day to hit the 2.5 million mark by Independence Day. Over the last three days, the state has averaged just 2,956 shots a day.
That’s likely in part why, on Thursday, Beshear changed his tack: “I don’t know when we’ll reach the mark, but we’ll certainly lift capacity restrictions this summer,” he said. Even when restrictions are fully lifted, “we’ll still be looking [for] those additional opportunities for people to get vaccinated.”
The announcement comes after the Republican Party earlier on Thursday joined Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles and formally called on Beshear to set a date to fully reopen Kentucky.
“While other states in our region plan to fully reopen — including those with both Democrat and Republican governors — Gov. Beshear once again is leaving Kentucky behind the curve when it comes to advocating for small businesses that have been hit hard by [his] executive overreach and unilateral dictates,” the state GOP said in a statement.
Beshear rebuffed that characterization on Thursday, saying he has been increasingly easing restrictions, just not all at once. “I’m not playing politics,” he said.
“Obviously I’ve been talking about this 2.5 million goal,” but he has been easing restrictions along the way, he said. “For seven straight press conferences I have said, yes, we will be easing restrictions as we move toward that goal.”
To buttress his point that the economy is open, Beshear said preliminary data shows the state “logged record-breaking gains in sales and motor vehicle usage taxes” during the month of April — “an all-time monthly high.”
The $486.5 million in sales tax recorded in April “aren’t just the best since the pandemic started, they were the best we have ever seen,” Beshear said. “Anyone who suggests our economy is not open, we just had the best sales tax month . . . in our history.”
The coronavirus positivity rate is 3.51%.
