Hurricane Delta is currently a Category 3 hurricane and is expected to remain or near that strength at landfall.

Check your local weather or emergency management agency for more specific information where you are.
Here is the latest Public Advisory /En español aquí

A note on the name: When we go past 21 named hurricanes in a season, we switch to the Greek alphabet. It is 21 because in the English alphabet name list we do not use Q, U, X, Y and Z. This has only happened once before, in 2005. Here's the Greek alphabet, for reference: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron ^{^Persei} ^⁸ , Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, Omega. You can learn more about hurricane names here.

Please look to local news, local weather, and local and state emergency management agencies to find out more about how you may be affected, if you need to evacuate, and steps on getting prepared. Please everyone stay safe.

U Forecasts, Predictions, and Watches/Warnings

Updates: National Hurricane Center, the NHC page on Delta, Weather.gov, wind speed, Google's Crisis Map
Useful Twitter accounts: NHC-Atlantic, FEMA; NWS, and for NWS offices in New Orleans LA, Lake Charles LA, Birmingham AL, Jackson MS; Louisiana Department of Public Health Twitter, NOLA Ready
Relevant Twitter hashtags with updates: #HurricaneDelta
State specific emergency management agencies: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia
For more information check out /TropicalWeather.

Tulsa Preparedness & Planning
College students should check out their university's emergency alert system - if you're not signed up to get notices, you should!
Useful links on: hurricane preparedness, emergency kits, emergency supplies for your car.

Louisburg Other things worth thinking about or getting:

General: A cooler. Fun/mental health stuff - books, games, etc. Cash. Weather radio and batteries. Flashlights > candles. Backup cell phone, laptop, or other batteries. Extra water. Hand sanitizer. Comfort items (a toddler's blankie, the puppy's favorite toy, your grandpa's watch you can't imagine losing).
Specialized: Transportation and assistive devices (think especially about children, pets, the elderly, people with disabilities).
Cars: Gas. Window breakeseatbelt cutter.

Gattaca Florida Safety:

Check your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector batteries!
Watch out for downed power lines. Never assume it is dead. Avoid it.
Assume floodwaters are deeper than they look. Turn around, don't drown.
Learn your flood and evacuation zones!
Food safety from the FDA and USDA.
If your home floods and you need to go up, head for the roof. Keep an ax in your attic to get out that way if you need it.
Be aware of potential 911 delays.
Evacuate! If you can, check on people you know to see if they need help evacuating if you can offer it or put them in touch with someone who can.

Hertfordshire Documentation:

Bring it with you.
Store it in a plastic bag to they are together and stay dry.
House deed/rental agreement/lease.
Insurance information (home, car, renters, medical, flood).
Identification (ID card/driver's license, passport, Social Security card, marriage/birth certificates).
Take photographs of your home before you evacuate and when you return. Good documentation of the damage may help if you need to file an aid or insurance claim.

For long-term preparedness, check out CERT training information.

Holland Evacuation

College Information
We'll be updating this list as we get information.

/CFB Ball Louisiana

University	Update	Sources
Grambling State	Monitoring	1
Louisiana Tech	Monitoring	2
LSU	Monitoring	3
LSU Alexandria	Online on Friday	15
McNeese State	Closed scheduled to reopen on Monday 10/12/20	4
Nicholls State	Monitoring	5
Tulane	Monitoring	6
South Louisiana Community College	Classes after noon on Thursday move to online. Classes canceled Friday.	18
Southeastern Louisiana	Monitoring	7
Southern University	Classes after noon on Thursday move to online. Classes canceled Friday.	8, 17
UL Lafayette	Classes after noon on Thursday move to online. Classes canceled Friday.	9, 16
New Orleans	Monitoring	10
Dillard University	Monitoring	11
University of Holy Cross	Monitoring	12
Loyola University New Orleans	Monitoring	13
Xavier University Louisiana	Monitoring	14

Sources
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Touchdown Game Information Penalty Flag
We'll be updating this list as we get information.
This list includes all games played with teams in affected states. Many may not be affected, but given the ripple effects of things like travel and the particular complications of scheduling this season, we've listed them all here for reference.

Date	Time	Home Team	Away Team	Game Location	Update
10/8	7:30 PM ET	Houston	Tulane	Houston, TX
10/10	Noon	Liberty	ULM	Lynchburg, VA
~~10/10~~ 10/14	~~Noon~~ 7:30pm ET	Louisiana	Coastal Carolina	Lafayette, LA	Date and time changed. Source
10/10	4:00 PM ET	Auburn	Arkansas	Auburn, AL
~~10/10~~	~~4:00 PM ET~~	Southern Miss	FAU	Hattiesburg, MS	Postponed. Source
10/10	~~6:00 PM ET~~	Ole Miss	Alabama	Oxford, MS	Pushed back to 6:30 PM ET Source
10/10	7:30 PM ET	Louisiana Tech	UTEP	Ruston, LA
10/10	7:30 PM ET	Kentucky	Mississippi State	Lexintgon, KY
10/10	~~9:00~~ 12:00 PM ET	~~LSU~~ Missouri	~~Missouri~~ LSU	~~Baton Rouge, LA~~ Columbia, MO	Time and location changed. Source

Learn More

COVID-19 Megathread #8

This post is updated daily.
You can also follow the Reddit Live thread here.

COVID-19 has now infected more than 803,313 people. There have been 39,014 confirmed deaths and 172,657 confirmed recoveries attributed to the virus.

Do you think you have COVID-19?
The CDC has a new online tool that allows people to "self-check" for COVID-19. Click here to use the "Coronavirus Self-Checker" tool.

Recent Updates
(Note: These are the updates from the last 48-72 hours.)

MARCH 30 -
General:

Coronavirus death rate is lower than previously reported, study says, but it's still deadlier than seasonal flu. The research, published in the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, estimated that about 0.66% of those infected with the virus will die. That coronavirus death rate, which is lower than earlier estimates, takes into account potentially milder cases that often go undiagnosed -- but it's still far higher than the 0.1% of people who are killed by the flu. When undetected infections aren't taken into account, the Lancet study found that the coronavirus death rate was 1.38%, which is more consistent with earlier reports. Read more here.

Updates from around the world:

Portugal has temporarily given all migrants and asylum seekers full citizenship rights, granting them full access to the country's healthcare as the outbreak of the novel coronavirus escalates in the country. The move will "unequivocally guarantee the rights of all the foreign citizens" with applications pending with Portuguese immigration, meaning they are "in a situation of regular permanence in National Territory," until June 30. Read more here.
Sweden is open for business during its coronavirus outbreak; the Scandinavian country believes its distinctive high-trust culture will protect it from needing to shut down for the pandemic. It's now the only country in Europe to not have restricted movement. Read more here.
Brazil’s governors are defying President Jair Bolsonaro over his call to reopen schools and businesses, dismissing his argument that the “cure” of widespread shutdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus is worse than the disease. Read more here.
Panama has announced new movement restrictions: Starting April 1, women will circulate Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and men Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Sundays everyone should stay at home. The same schedule is used with the last ID number and exceptions established in Decree 507 remain. See the tweet here.
Netherlands: A painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh was stolen in an overnight smash-and-grab raid on a museum that was closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, police and the museum said Monday. Read more here.

Updates from the United States:

A 1,000-bed Navy ship, the Comfort, has arrived in New York City. The ship has 12 operating rooms, a medical laboratory and more than 1,000 officers. See the video here.
Federal judges block 3 states from enforcing abortion bans tied to the pandemic. Ohio, Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama and Oklahoma are among the other states that recently moved to suspend access. The judges on Monday lifted restrictions Texas, Ohio and Alabama imposed on abortion during the coronavirus pandemic in decisions that could have repercussions for several more Republican-led states that have deemed the procedure non-essential during the crisis. Read more here.
Arizona, Virginia, and Washington D.C. have now joined dozens of other states in issuing stay-at-home orders. You can see all the states that currently have stay-at-home orders and advisories here.

MARCH 29 -
Updates from around the world:

Hungary: Parliament passes bill that gives PM Orbán unlimited power & proclaims:

State of emergency w/o time limit

Rule by decree

Parliament suspended

No elections

Spreading fake news + rumors: up to 5 yrs in prison

Leaving quarantine: up to 8 yrs in prison. See the tweet here.

The former Italian Prime Minister calls for Hungary to reverse its dictatorship law or else be expelled from the EU. See the tweet here.

The postponed Tokyo Olympics have been rescheduled and will now be held from July 23 to August 8 in 2021. Read more here.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude plunged to its cheapest in 18 years on Monday, while U.S. crude briefly tumbled below $20 per barrel, on heightened fears that the global coronavirus shutdown could last months and demand for fuel could decline further. Read more here.
Spain's Princess Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Parma has become the first royal to die from the novel coronavirus. The 86-year-old was a cousin of Spain’s King Felipe VI. She died after contracting COVID-19. Read more here.
Australia: Two Australian states close gun shops. Read more here.
Japan will deny entry to people coming from the U.S., China, South Korea, and most of Europe. See the tweet here.
Argentina, Honduras, and Guatemala are all extending their quarantines through to at least mid-April.
Mexico is calling on all residents in Mexico to stay at home until April 19, saying it was the only way to reduce the transmission rate of the coronavirus.Read more here.
Belarus president refuses to cancel anything - and says vodka and saunas will ward off COVID-19. Read more here.
Netherlands: In a national address to the Dutch nation on Monday, March 16th, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his country would aim to develop immunity to the novel coronavirus among its population by allowing large numbers to contract the illness at a controlled pace. In the past week, Rutte has since walked back the herd immunity policy line by introducing what could be characterized as lockdown light. The country's pragmatic balancing act doesn't seem to be working as well as intended...The confirmed case fatality rate in the Netherlands of approximately 7% stands in stark contrast to its neighbor Germany’s 0.7%. Read more here.
Indonesia may soon quarantine almost 30 million people in its capital and surrounding areas and limit people’s movement between regions to contain the spread of the coronavirus that’s killed more than 100 people in the world’s fourth-most populous nation. Read more here.
South Korea: Around 14 million South Korean households will qualify for financial assistance under the government’s newly announced disaster support fund. The level of support depends on the number of people in the household, with one person households qualifying for 400,000 won ($327), while households with four or more people will receive 1 million won ($817) in support. Read more here.
Nigeria: Both Nigeria's largest city and its capital city will be under a "cessation of movement" for 14 days, said Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in a Sunday address, which was published on Twitter. See the tweet here.

Updates from the United States:

President Trump extends social distancing guidelines to April 30. See the tweet here.
CDC issues domestic travel advisory for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Read more here.
The Justice Department has started to probe a series of stock transactions made by lawmakers ahead of the sharp market downturn stemming from the spread of coronavirus, according to two people familiar with the matter. The inquiry, which is still in its early stages and being done in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has so far included outreach from the FBI to at least one lawmaker, Sen. Richard Burr, seeking information about the trades, according to one of the sources. Read more here.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke to reporters Sunday morning saying Americans should start to see checks from the $2 trillion stimulus bill direct deposited into their accounts over the next three weeks. Read more here.
New York City builds emergency field hospital in Central Park. The mayor announced the construction of a 68-bed emergency field hospital in Central Park's East Meadow. Read more here.
Maryland has now joined other U.S. states in announcing a stay-at-home order. Read more here.
Michigan: State Rep. Isaac Robinson, D-Detroit, died Sunday. Crain’s reported that Robinson died of “suspected coronavirus infection,” but the cause of his death was not immediately confirmed late Sunday. Read more here.
Liberty University reopened last week, igniting a firestorm. As of Friday, Dr. Eppes said, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggested Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. An additional eight were told to self-isolate. Read more here.

MARCH 28 -
Updates from around the world:

Germany: Mr Thomas Schaefer, the finance minister of Germany's Hesse state, has committed suicide apparently after becoming "deeply worried" over how to cope with the economic fallout from the coronavirus. Mr Schaefer, 54, was found dead near a railway track on Saturday. Read more here.
India is planning to turn some railway coaches into isolation wards for patients with coronavirus, as authorities scramble to prepare the country's health infrastructure for an expected surge in cases. Read more here.
United Kingdom: Fruit and veg ‘will run out’ unless Britain charters planes to fly in farm workers from eastern Europe. UK urgently needs to fill 90,000 positions to pick crops that will otherwise die in the fields. Read more here.
Spain's quarantine measures have been extended until April 9. Read more here. Meanwhile, the regional government of Madrid is planning to set up a second makeshift morgue, which could start receiving coffins on Monday. The facility is located inside a failed development project called the City of Justice that was launched in 2005 to bring together all of Madrid’s judicial institutions. Read more here.
France: A French former cabinet minister and former president of the Parisian Haut-de-Seine administrative district has become one of the first high-profile politicians to die of COVID-19. Patrick Devedjian was 75. Read more here.
Vietnam has started closing non-essential services and restricting religious activities, parts of measures under a directive signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc that runs from Saturday until April 15. Provincial and municipal leaders will decide which specific services are to be shut down. Read more here.
Mexico: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been criticized at home and abroad for what many called a lackadaisical posture — urging people to hug, shaking hands and kissing well-wishers as he stumped and extolling his personal good-luck charms such as Catholic scapulars, a shamrock and $2 bill. But the president and his team have shifted their message radically in recent days, as virus cases have begun surging, urging people to stay home and to practice social distancing — and warning of dire results if that advice is ignored. Although the Mexican government still hasn't instituted curfews or mandatory stay-at-home orders. Read more here. This change comes after a Mexican governor sparked outrage earlier in the week by claiming that poor people are immune to the virus. Read more here.

Updates from the United States:

Kansas joins dozens of other states in issuing a stay-at-home order. Read more here.
Rhode Island sparked outrage with the state's new coronavirus measures, which include stopping and screening passengers in cars wtih New York license plates, and going door-to-door to inform any New Yorkers who may have come to the state that they must self-quarantine for 14 days. Read more here. In response, NY Governor Cuomo has threatened to sue Rhode Island. Read more here.
Meanwhile, President Trump and Governor Cuomo got into a constitutional slapfight about whether or not a federal quarantine would be mandated for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In the end, President Trump backed down and instead requested the CDC issue a "strong travel advisory" for the area, which has now happened. Read more here.

Tracking COVID-19

Johns Hopkins University has a live trackemap of the global spread of COVID-19 here.
The CDC is tracking US cases here.
Today's situation report from the WHO.
The CDC's COVID-19 Situation Summary.
There are tons of travel bans globally right now. CNN has put together a full list here.

Reputable Sources for Information:

Previous Megathreads

Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update October 27, 2020

Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update October 27, 2020
Notes by mr_tyler_durden and Daily Update Team
Check your registration status, ballot status, or how to vote here!
Note: Thank you to the people who have given awards to these posts but I do want to say: Please don’t spend money to give these posts an award or if you want to give then donate it here instead. These people need your help more than I need awards. I guess if you are just spending reddit coins that you already have then that’s fine but don’t spend new money, donate it instead. Thank you all!
Watch here:

Youtube: Update (YT Channel)
Facebook: Update (FB Page)

Headlines

99,637 Cases (+1,786), 1,428 Deaths (+18)
New cases by county: 379x Jefferson, 118x Fayette, 68x Warren, 60x Kenton, 49x Hardin, 45x Pike, 42x Barren, 42x Laurel, 42x Madison, 41x Boone, 40x Bullitt, 36x Campbell, 36x Nelson, 24x Clay, 24x Larue, 23x Hart, 22x Daviess, 21x Lee, 20x Calloway, 20x Logan, 19x Floyd, 18x Christian, 18x Whitley, 16x Jessamine, 16x Johnson, 16x Knox, 16x Marion, 16x McCracken, 14x Garrard, 14x Henderson, 14x Montgomery, 14x Todd, 13x Clark, 13x Hancock, 13x Martin, 13x Rockcastle, 12x Boyd, 12x Grant, 12x Perry, 12x Shelby, 11x Estill, 11x Lincoln, 11x Monroe, 11x Scott, 10x Carter, 10x Franklin, 10x Graves, 10x Ohio, 9x Mercer, 9x Oldham, 9x Spencer, 9x Washington, 8x Grayson, 8x Knott, 8x Meade, 8x Muhlenberg, 7x Bell, 7x Henry, 7x Lewis, 7x McLean, 7x Morgan, 7x Rowan, 7x Simpson, 7x Webster, 6x Boyle, 6x Butler, 6x Magoffin, 6x Marshall, 6x Russell, 5x Adair, 5x Anderson, 5x Jackson, 5x Lawrence, 5x Mason, 5x Metcalfe, 4x Bath, 4x Clinton, 4x Harlan, 4x Harrison, 4x Hopkins, 4x Robertson, 4x Taylor, 3x Elliott, 3x Menifee, 3x Nicholas, 3x Owsley, 3x Pendleton, 2x Bourbon, 2x Breathitt, 2x Crittenden, 2x Cumberland, 2x Greenup, 2x Hickman, 2x Livingston, 2x Pulaski, 2x Trigg, 2x Wolfe, 1x Allen, 1x Caldwell, 1x Edmonson, 1x Fleming, 1x Fulton, 1x Green, 1x Leslie, 1x Letcher, 1x McCreary, 1x Union, 1x Wayne, 1x Woodford
New deaths by county: 99 F Christian, 79 F Henderson, 70 F Hopkins, 86 F Jefferson, 62 M Jefferson, 82 F Jefferson, 93 M Jefferson, 62 M Jefferson, 70 M Jefferson, 79 F Jefferson, 87 M Jefferson, 96 M Jessamine, 96 M Jessamine, 76 M Nicholas, 72 M Ohio, 91 F Scott, 77 F Scott, 72 F Taylor
Fast 4 Today.
- 1. Grants: Thanks to the funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission, we awarded more than $6.6M for 13 projects in 11 communities across the region of Eastern Kentucky.
- 2. Roads: The governor also announced several Kentucky Transportation awards across Kentucky. In the last two days we've also announced dozens of funding awards to local governments. A total of nearly $13M dollars to 14 cities and 29 fiscal courts, from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
- 3. Jobs: Yesterday I attended another groundbreaking, the agritech company AppHarvest recently announced construction has begun on its third high-tech greenhouse in central Appalachia, this time in Berea. <...> Due to the surge in ecommerce and to improve customer service in South Eastern Kentucky, UPS is returning to Harlan County, and will reopen the extended Center at Baxter in November.
- 4. Mask Up: Media Below. Also, Vote.
So, yesterday we announced our Red Zone Reduction Recommendations. These are when a community, the spread gets so significant that it is really dangerous. It's dangerous to individuals, these recommendations on how you can protect yourself, but they are also the steps that a community can take, above and beyond the restrictions we have in place, to to get the levels of the virus down.
- Here's how this works, it works the same as schools. <...> We update this map every day, and that shows what counties are red, what counties are orange, what counties are yellow, and what counties are not green. Because, currently we have zero green counties. The goal of it is to have the community also doing all the steps that it takes to get that county out of red, and back to orange, and back to yellow. And these responses, <...>are to be coordinated in the same timing of the schools. So what that means is on Thursday, we want our counties, our cities, our businesses in that, our state government operations in that area, to be looking at the map. And if they are red that gives them the next couple days to plan for what Monday looks like. For employers in a red county again, that at the end of Thursday is red, we want them to have as many employees work from home as possible. We want our government offices in that area to be working virtually unless they provide a service that must be done in person. We're asking people not to go out in person shopping and to order takeout, and if they need to do it, to prioritize businesses that enforce the mask mandate. We're asking communities to reschedule, postpone, or cancel public events. No gatherings of any type, and basically anything you don't need to do, stay at home as much as possible. Now when you coordinate these two responses, the school and the community together, we believe that we can get the maximum amount of reduction by reducing contacts by the most that we can, reducing all the school contacts, reducing the work contacts, and those others that can be out there. We believe that if the response is coordinated in this way, we can get the best result, and it's designed to lessen the burden on our families. If a child is moving to virtual learning at home for a coming week, if a parent can also work from home, it is going to be easier on that family. And if that child is going to be home more, encouraging the family to be home more during that period, again, should also help that family overall. It's by putting this and the long term care guidance that works the same way, all together, that we want to provide a structure for an effective response that we hope can get you out of the red, and back to the yellow or maybe even the green as quickly as possible.
Especially in terms of schools and universities, we are seeing such high numbers, what’s keeping you from making the recommendation that schools should just go ahead and switch to everyone being online and universities should go online? What’s keeping you from making that decision? -- [...] Well first for universities, there are positives and negatives on both sides. The fact that you've got students primarily on one campus that are getting good services in the midst of this, our universities are working hard on that, we have more testing among that age group when they are at universities, than when they are at home. You've got the community, which is a little tighter, it's not in a bubble, it's still somewhat in the broader community, but there are some pluses on the containment side, on our universities, and our numbers are going down from what we've seen. Schools right now are working really hard, they're actually from what we've seen, even doing better than expected and we knew that they would work hard, but community transmission gets so high that is going to get in the schools, unless we can lessen it on the community, but we don't see school spread driving the community spread.
Is there any rethinking on whether or not the Halloween guidance should stay the same and should parents be rethinking whether or not to allow their kids to go trick-or-treating when mask compliance is not always where it should be? -- So the question is on trick or treating and are we rethinking our advice on that. I think we've given really specific advice. I think we need to continue to message it as much as we can, that you need to just trick-or-treat with your immediate family, that you can't hand out candy yourself at your house, you need to place it out, separate it. When you put it out you need to sanitize your hands, and when you get home with the candy, you need to wipe it off with a sanitary wipe; you need to avoid any type of other gathering activities around Halloween.
In terms of the beginning of this virus to right now...Restaurants/Businesses/Schools recommended stayed closed, We’re not seeing that right now. Obviously we're now seeing training on county red zones, etc. Why aren’t you making the really tough decisions right now?-- The question is about, I guess, mandates versus recommendations, asking counties to do things versus the rest. First let's put up the restrictions that are currently in place. So, you're right, we have made a lot of tough calls, and we have made a lot of tough decisions, but they haven't gone away, they're still in effect, and we still get pushback from them. You look at us going into the winter with restaurant and bar capacity at where it is, we are keeping that mandate into effect. You see the response to the mask mandate from a small group. Doesn't matter, we're keeping it in effect. We got those out there that don't want to enforce it, it’s become pretty unpopular about having to enforce it. We're still asking people to do it. Gatherings, which there's been pushback on, we still have at one of the lowest areas in the country based on where it is right now. Arenas, football games, have capacity restrictions and we've made those decisions in the last two months. So we haven't stopped making tough calls when they should be statewide. What we've also seen is if you don't have everybody on board, if everybody doesn't have some responsibility, and a part of the job, what can happen. All those restrictions I just mentioned to you, which are significant and should be enough, we still have cases elevating. And that's because we've got some folks that aren't following them. What this does is it puts, I think, the right type of pressure on a community, to come together, to do what it takes, to do extra things, but to also follow those mandates. And if increases continue, if communities can't get these under control, we're not ruling out additional steps,
Slides from Update

Full Notes

Well good afternoon everyone and I'm honored to kick us off this afternoon with the Fast Four. And we've had a couple of exciting days with announcements that we've made and I’d like to go over some of those now if I could. Governor Beshear and our administration are committed to bringing real opportunity to every corner of Kentucky.
Over the last two days we've announced some exciting projects, they will do just that in my home of Eastern Kentucky. Thanks to the funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission, we awarded more than $6.6M for 13 projects in 11 communities across the region of Eastern Kentucky. Funding went to projects in Greene County, McCreary County, Albany, Booneville, Hazard, Morehead, Mount Vernon, Paintsville, Pikeville, Somerset, and Whitesburg. This grant will allow- These projects support the very values as Kentuckians, we will use this money for critical infrastructure, create new educational opportunities and programs, healthcare, create good jobs, and better the lives of our Eastern Kentucky families.
- One of our ARC grants went to Morehead State University, a place near and dear to my heart for the aerospace program at the Space Science Center at Morehead State University. This grant will allow them to install a 12 meter satellite tracing antennas and update the star theater, which will expand education and outreach opportunities and submit their legacy of graduating qualified workforce-ready engineers and physicists throughout the program, the Space Science Center program. Projects in McCreary County, Albany, Booneville, and Whitesburg went to update water and sewer system improvements, which is so important to the entire region of Eastern Kentucky. The projects will ensure Kentuckians have clean drinking water, which is a basic human right, and will help industries expand in the region. Thanks to everyone who made these projects possible, and Governor, you always mention these folks that write these grants, and without those that dot every “I” and cross every “T”, these grants would not have a possibility to be reviewed and then awarded. And to all of our Kentucky communities, please stay tuned, because there's more to come as we continue to build that brighter and better Kentucky.
- The governor also announced several Kentucky Transportation awards across Kentucky. In the last two days we've also announced dozens of funding awards to local governments. A total of nearly $13M dollars to 14 cities and 29 fiscal courts, from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. In all cases the awards are reimbursements for work performed on resurfacing, repair, and broken pavement, and drainage ditching. In all cases, the roadways were rated in poor condition. Kentucky Transportation district engineers assess the road conditions to determine the most critical needs based on factors such as safety, economic impact, and traffic volumes. The funding reimburses these local governments for work they perform on roadways that were rated in poor condition and badly needed fixing, whether it was new pavement, or breaks in roadbeds or drainage ditching. A total of 196 projects across eastern Kentucky. Let me give you just a few examples, going west to east.
  - The city of Barlow, down on the Mississippi, and Ballard County was approved for $223,000 after resurfacing 11 city streets.
  - Morton's Gap and Hopkins county would receive $16,370 for its single project of drainage ditching work on Shop Street.
  - Nelson county will receive $267,800 for work on three county roads such as resurfacing two miles of Plum Rum road.
  - Nicholas county will receive $379,332 for resurfacing parts of four roads, such as a two mile stretch of Miller Station road.
  - And in Johnson County, my next door neighbor and close to home, was approved for $332,827 for resurfacing on seven local roads, including about a mile and a half of the Middle Fork of Creek there in Johnson County. The point being transportation infrastructure that improves people's lives isn't confined to the big projects like interstates and parkways and bridges over the Ohio River. It's equally as important to keep and maintain the streets and roads right around, where we live. That's one way we build this better Kentucky, some exciting economic development announcements, as well.
- Yesterday I attended another groundbreaking, the agritech company AppHarvest recently announced construction has begun on its third high-tech greenhouse in central Appalachia, this time in Berea. The project stands to create 60 full time jobs for people in Berea in that region, and their families. The company will focus on growing leafy greens at a controlled environment indoor farm which will span about 15 acres. The company continues to position itself for success within a developing AgriTech industry and it demonstrates our potential to make Kentucky the agritech capital of the world. The announcement marks the third great piece of news to come from AppHarvest in less than a week's time. Last Wednesday AppHarvest celebrated the opening of its more than 100 million dollar, state of the art, high-tech, mega greenhouse in Morehead, Rowan County, Kentucky. It is a 60-acre facility and is expected to create over 300 jobs for families in eastern Kentucky. Last Tuesday the day before, the company announced the ground has been broken, just outside of Richmond, close to EKU’s Ag farm on a greenhouse which is comparable in size to the one that we cut the ribbon on the next day in Morehead. Last Tuesday, the company announced this groundbreaking in Richmond, along with the EKU officials, the president and its local officials, an exciting time for Madison County, an exciting time for Rowan County, and yes there is more to come, please stay tuned. All this activity tells us AppHarvest is going to be the economic driver in the Commonwealth for a very long time. I'm grateful to AppHarvest, in part, to our state's growing agritech industry, and I appreciate the company's emphasis on furthering sustainability, economic vitality, and community development in Kentucky. I want to thank my good friend Jonathan Webb and everyone at the company for bringing those incredible opportunities to Kentucky.
- Also, good news for Harlan County. This morning, the county judge contacted me, and he is ready to announce a project that he's been working on there in Harlan County. UPS has given Harlan County a final thumbs up to announce the reopening of the facility in Harlan County. Due to the surge in ecommerce and to improve customer service in South Eastern Kentucky, UPS is returning to Harlan County, and will reopen the extended Center at Baxter in November. This reopening we're bringing back 20 jobs that left the county in 2016, the company will also be creating an additional 40 jobs at this facility in the next few months. The distribution of packages from this facility will begin in November, UPS is planning on reopening the customer service portion of the center in February. We want to thank Wally Asher, UPS business manager, and County Judge Dan Mosley for working to return this operation to Harlan. We wish Shannon Hall, a UPS operations delivery driver, supervisor as well, in opening and managing the new Harlan facility. Governor Beshear and I joined Harlan County fiscal court, Harlan County Economic Development Authority, and one Harlan County in welcoming UPS back to Harlan County, and look forward to working with the corporation for years to come, to grow, and serve the citizens of our communities.
- As we go to the fourth part of the Fast 4 at 4. Of course, Mask Up Kentucky but Theo Jordan (I was reading some of the news outlets over the weekend. And this absolutely touched my heart.) Theo Jordan's a high school student at Holmes High School. He's been working at Kroger for a few weeks to help his family, and also save for a car. He was working at that store and he saw a shopper who didn't have enough money for all the groceries that he had while he was checking out. Theo provided $35 of his own money to help him get all the food that he needed. I think that's what Kentucky is all about. This young man who stepped up so somebody in need, on any day but especially in the tough times of COVID and the hard times that some people are going through, this is what Kentucky's made of, this is who we are- a very moving story if you didn't get a chance to read the story, I would encourage you to do so.
- The other encouragement and the other, I think the thing that's on everybody's mind, a week from today is election day- early voting is going on now. I would encourage all of you to get out and vote. It's your time to have your voice. It's your time to play your part. And when you go to vote, please wear your mask. Put your mask on. Let's whip this terrible virus across Kentucky and across and around the world. Put your mask on, wash your hands, social distance, stay away from large crowds. Governor, it's been a good week so far, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you.
Alright, thank you to Rocky for some of the good news of the day. And thank you to the Grayson County Cougars whose mask I am wearing today. We appreciate what they, and every single one of our schools, and their staff are doing to keep our kids safe. And today, a little bit later, we're going to be talking about our red county recommendations again, and how the timing of the actions for those communities can line up with the guidance we provided to schools so that an entire community can come together when a county goes red to get it out of being red as quickly as possible. So we've been talking about this week and, and at the end of last, we are seeing this very serious escalation of cases in Kentucky. Just look at last week. 9,335 cases. Look at how quickly it grew and by how much. I'm here to tell you that we expect this week's cases to exceed last week's cases. I told you yesterday we had the single largest Monday, in number of cases ever, today, we have the single highest Tuesday with 1,786 new cases of COVID-19. That is 1,786 Kentuckians and their families that are worried about their health, right now. And that's 1,786 Kentuckians that some portion of which will end up in the hospital, will end up in the ICU, and will end up not making it. It is our duty as Americans, as Kentuckians, as good people of values and faith to come together once again to fight this virus. None of us a year from now, when we are in an old normal, a new normal when we are beyond COVID, because I think we most certainly will be, want to look back and say, “if we just cared a little bit more, what could have been...?”
Positive cases today: 1,786
Probable cases: 15,460
Total confirmed cases: 99,637
New cases by county: 379x Jefferson, 118x Fayette, 68x Warren, 60x Kenton, 49x Hardin, 45x Pike, 42x Barren, 42x Laurel, 42x Madison, 41x Boone, 40x Bullitt, 36x Campbell, 36x Nelson, 24x Clay, 24x Larue, 23x Hart, 22x Daviess, 21x Lee, 20x Calloway, 20x Logan, 19x Floyd, 18x Christian, 18x Whitley, 16x Jessamine, 16x Johnson, 16x Knox, 16x Marion, 16x McCracken, 14x Garrard, 14x Henderson, 14x Montgomery, 14x Todd, 13x Clark, 13x Hancock, 13x Martin, 13x Rockcastle, 12x Boyd, 12x Grant, 12x Perry, 12x Shelby, 11x Estill, 11x Lincoln, 11x Monroe, 11x Scott, 10x Carter, 10x Franklin, 10x Graves, 10x Ohio, 9x Mercer, 9x Oldham, 9x Spencer, 9x Washington, 8x Grayson, 8x Knott, 8x Meade, 8x Muhlenberg, 7x Bell, 7x Henry, 7x Lewis, 7x McLean, 7x Morgan, 7x Rowan, 7x Simpson, 7x Webster, 6x Boyle, 6x Butler, 6x Magoffin, 6x Marshall, 6x Russell, 5x Adair, 5x Anderson, 5x Jackson, 5x Lawrence, 5x Mason, 5x Metcalfe, 4x Bath, 4x Clinton, 4x Harlan, 4x Harrison, 4x Hopkins, 4x Robertson, 4x Taylor, 3x Elliott, 3x Menifee, 3x Nicholas, 3x Owsley, 3x Pendleton, 2x Bourbon, 2x Breathitt, 2x Crittenden, 2x Cumberland, 2x Greenup, 2x Hickman, 2x Livingston, 2x Pulaski, 2x Trigg, 2x Wolfe, 1x Allen, 1x Caldwell, 1x Edmonson, 1x Fleming, 1x Fulton, 1x Green, 1x Leslie, 1x Letcher, 1x McCreary, 1x Union, 1x Wayne, 1x Woodford
That list is far longer than anyone we want to read. Again that says we all have a lot of work to do. And if I read the name of your community and your community is going red or going to be red, and we'll talk about this Thursday as the date that we look at that map, then you got a job to do, just like I do. And that job is to do what it takes to defeat COVID-19, to cut down on your contacts, to spend that next week differently, knowing that it has gotten dangerous enough to where, for that period of time, we need to alter our day to day lives to make sure we can protect those around us.
Total tests conducted: 1,964,463 (PCR: 1,821,228, Serology: 85,579)
Positivity Rate: 5.97% - the highest certainly in a long time.
new cases by county. It's gonna take a bit for me to read all of those in double digits because when we have this many cases, it means we are having escalations in just about every county.
Total hospitalized: 6,947
Currently hospitalized: 913 - We continue to see increases in our hospitalization with 913 Kentuckians currently in a hospital bed because of COVID
Total in ICU: 1,694
Currently in ICU: 233 - fighting for their lives
On a ventilator: 115 - Those numbers aren't going in the right direction but as long as cases are increasing at the rate they are, they're going to continue to increase as well
Total recovered: 18,045
New deaths today: 18
Total Deaths: 1,428
And if you want to know the seriousness of it, which you would think that 1,786 cases, 913 people in the hospital and 233 in the ICU because of COVID was enough, we have 18 additional deaths today, and every single one of these deaths occurred in October.
New deaths by county: 99 F Christian, 79 F Henderson, 70 F Hopkins, 86 F Jefferson, 62 M Jefferson, 82 F Jefferson, 93 M Jefferson, 62 M Jefferson, 70 M Jefferson, 79 F Jefferson, 87 M Jefferson, 96 M Jessamine, 96 M Jessamine, 76 M Nicholas, 72 M Ohio, 91 F Scott, 77 F Scott, 72 F Taylor
18 additional Kentuckians. And you can see the numbers that we lose pick up as our cases pick up. And sadly, I think we will see these numbers grow even higher. So we got work to do, let's also remember that it's our job to honor those that we've lost, and to support their families. So, if you haven't been lighting your home up green, why don't we start doing it again? If we haven't been ringing bells at 10am in the morning, why don't we do it again? Because you never know who's out there and who it might help on that given day. We have more COVID now than ever before and we need more support for those that are going through hard times or those who have lost than ever before. This week could be even worse than last week. So we need your help.
Racial breakdown of all cases: 80.96% Caucasian, 11.22% Black or African-American, 1.61% Asian, 5.77% Multiracial
Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 90.45% non-Hispanic and 9.55% Hispanic
Racial breakdown of all deaths: 84.06% Caucasian, 12.03% Black or African-American, 0.90% Asian, 3.01% Multiracial
Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 96.64% non-Hispanic and 3.36% Hispanic
Long term care facilities continue to get hit. When we have so much virus that a community is red, it's going to get in that facility, even with everything we do. So protecting the most vulnerable, is also about lowering cases in our community.
Long Term Care Facilities (PDF): 57 new residents and 33 new staff positive from yesterday, and 8 more deaths.
- Total facilities: 358
- Total deaths: 858
- Active cases: 906 residents, 500 staff
- Total cases: 6025 residents, 4180 staff
Day Care Facilities: 10 new facilities, 8 new staff, 10 new children. 339 facilities, 282 staff, 204 children,
K-12 Update (PDF): PDF Update only
University Update (PDF): PDF Update only
So I read 18 ages and genders and counties of people we lost but remember, these are people. They're people, and by now you either know one of them, or you know someone who has lost somebody. So today we're remembering Bobby Roar. On October 16th, Kentucky lost another veteran to COVID-19, a World War II veteran, husband, stepfather, and grandfather passed away after battling the virus for several weeks. Bobby was a hero to our people joining the Army at just 16 years old, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Bobby traveled the world serving three years as an equipment operator with the 871st airborne engineers. Bobby never met a stranger, he loved getting out, meeting new people, and sharing stories. So much so that after retiring from a long career in government and volunteerism, Bobby could often be found at Walmart daily where he’d just sit and talk to people. They even offered him a greeter position. Bobby was a father and a stepfather to two sons, two daughters, and a grandfather to nine grandchildren who will miss him so much. Most of all, he'll be missed by his wife Dana, whose name he called during the final days. Bobby was one of the residents of Thompson-Hood Veteran Center in Wilmore, where he passed away, separated from his family. Because that's what this virus does to our people, makes the hardest moments, even more unbearable. Thank you to Bobby’s stepson Ken, for sharing his story. Ken we are praying for you and your entire family. And we will remember the sacrifice that you had to make and how we lost your stepdad, but we will also remember that challenge in World War Two that he faced, called on us as Americans to sacrifice a heck of a lot more than the small things, that if we did right now we better protect those around us, including your stepdad, who we have lost. So today, I wear my mask for Bobby, for his family. We love you all. We care about you. We are here for you. Even if we have to be separated, a little bit.
Alright. Want to go over our red county recommendations again and talk about how the timing works. And then we're going to have Kelly Alexander, who's our chief of staff for the Department of Public Health, share a very personal story that she's going through right now, and then we'll have an update on our presence here in Kentucky.

(continued in stickied comment)

WATCH LIVE @ 4:30PM: New Orleans Mayor Cantrell discusses New Orleans moving to Phase 2 on Sat. June 13th

Mayor LaToya Cantrell made the announcement Tuesday during an interview with WBOK radio in New Orleans. She plans to discuss phase two at a news conference at 4:30PM. Announces New Orleans will move into Phase 2 on Saturday, June 13th. [Source: WDSU]
From the Mayors Twitter @mayorcantrell

Phase Two Overview

Phase Two will ease restrictions on medium risk operations, while continuing limits on occupancy, social distancing measures, and requirements for personal protective equipment. Sector-specific guidelines will be in place to ensure safe operations.
Large gatherings will continue to be prohibited due to the significant risk of rapid spread through groups.
- Gatherings are limited to 100 people with one safety control officer provided per 50 people per Louisiana Fire Marshal guidelines, even in outdoor parks and spaces.
High-risk residents, like seniors & people w/ serious medical conditions should continue to stay home.
Indoor live entertainment is not allowed.
Outdoor live entertainment is only allowed with a special event permit.
It will be another 21 days at least to see how Phase Two has impacted the community.
The LDH has partnered with our health providers to have teams go into nursing home communities.

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

All non-essential businesses and institutions must register on the Louisiana Fire Marshal website http://opensafely.la.gov to receive sector-specific guidelines for reopening and a certificate of Acknowledgement of Registration, which must be posted.
All businesses & institutions must prohibit individuals from entering the premises if they have symptoms of illness, must require that all customers, clients, & visitors must wear face coverings while indoors or on the premises.
- Anyone can report a business to 3-1-1.
  - It triggers enforcement. Employees and customers alike, please call.
  - Wearing a mask is mandated for the safety of our City. We will hold them accountable.

Follow LIVE on https://twitter.com/mayorcantrell or LISTEN LIVE on WBOK 1230

Additional Information from the 4:30 Press Conference

New Orleans is on a different timeline because it was a hot spot in America.
New Orleans has consistently flattened its curve at a rate of 97% and growing.
Cases are decreasing significantly.

Milestones:

Hospitals have capacity
A steady decline in new cases.
Fewer positive cases allow the ability to test, trace, isolate.
Upwards of 700 tests per day.

Phase 2

Everyone should wear face coverings.
It is mandated in the City of New Orleans.
Meeting all state requirements - Operations opening at 50% capacity with social distancing.
Bars allowed to open at 25% with social distancing.
Indoor live entertainment, festivals, amusement parks, concert halls, remain closed.
City Hall will ease into physical restrictions and will open to the public ad a limited capacity.
Houses of Worship can open at 50% capacity but with a cap of 250 people total.
Gaming establishments can open at 25% capacity (includes Harrah's and the Fairgrounds).
The Interior of malls is open at 50% with social distancing.

Why is New Orleans taking a Slow and Steady Approach

From the peak in cases (beginning of April) the number of cases New Orleans is seeing per day has decreased by 97%. New Orleans is a leader for cases going down and staying down.
Over 7,000+ New Orleanians have tested positive and there have been over 500 deaths.
Only Rhode Island and Iceland have tested a larger percentage of their people.
New Orleans continues to meet all the criteria to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2. COVID-19 has not gone it is still here and will continue to be here for some time.
We know the majority of the outbreaks come from high risk /super spreader events.
- Large groups of people not wearing masks not social distancing. Touching each other or signing or doing activities like that.
Risk fo COVID can be measured in:
- More time you in close contact with someone or a group of people
- The closer you are your risk increases.
- The more people you are with raises your risk.
- Indoor activities raise your risk.
Fundamental truths:
- Evidence comes out every day supporting that wearing masks saves lives and reduces transmission.
- WAshing hands, cleanings surfaces, maintaining good sanitation and hygiene. Not touching your face.
- maintaining a physical distance.
Want to protect those who are the most vulnerable. The elderly and those with high-risk medical conditions.
Difference between large groups that are easier to control and those that are not.
- Movies and church service both have a start and end times. You will it down not interact much with others and then leave at a specified time. So the largest risk is entering and leaving, but the majority of the time you are with your household.
If we start slow and see good results we know we can move forward. Right now in other parts of the state, they are seeing a rise, but what do you do? Do you go back? What happens? We want to make sure we are not in that position and contact tracing and taking it slow will allow us to do that.
Allowed gathering size is larger than many cities and states (Mississippi, Vegas, and others). New Orleans feels comfortable that they can do this because they have not only plateaued but created a valley.
Need 3 weeks of data before making a decision. Need to increase testing focus on nursing homes and homeless shelters. Test every hospital / essential worker and hospitality worker who is returning to work.
In discussions with NORD to see how to progress with schooling.
If hotspots appear they will move testing to that area.

Emergency Operations Center

continues to be activated to support the New Orleans COVID-19 projects such as mobile testing sites, logistics operations, mask dispersal, and more.
Pivot this weekend for Tropical Storm Cristobal.
This is going to be a long hurricane season, stat hurricane aware.

Q&A

Protests and COVID-19

As it relates to following the protests, we are not only supporting the protests but understanding that we have to make a way for people to do what they rightfully can do, utilize their voice. We have been very encouraging and supportive of the protestors who are wearing face coverings and are truly trying to practice social distancing. We have not let the protests prevent us from moving to Phase 2 because:
- We know we have enough testing and are increasing testing to cover the protesters.
- We are asking the protesters to get tested.
- We are not setting. up a testing site for them but they can go get tests just like everyone else.
- IF they are sick they need to stay home.
- The use of tear gas as a deterrent has been part of the NOPD policy however, Cantrell is always willing to review policy and come up with better solutions to address protests that cross the line/ where there are disturbances by choice. To makes sure everyone protestors, people, and police officers can be protected. Right now it is part of the policy but it not our desire to ever use force at all.

Clearly we did see protesting happening as a push to reopen the economy. But as we think about the protests that are happening now we embrace it as a public health issue. Meaning people are protesting being racism, poverty, discrimination, and oppression is a direct threat to everyone's public health. So in that regard, we deem it as essential. At the same time, we are encouraging and asking our protests to do it in a way that's absolutely peaceful and protected from CVOID-19 so everyone is safe.

Dr Avengo...
We have talked a lot about essential and non-essential activities throughout the pandemic. weeks ago there were peaceful protests against the lockdown weeks ago there were concerns then there are concerns now. Using one's right to use their 1st amendment to voice concerns about the systemic racism that kills large numbers of people in our city and the country. that alone is something we encourage people to talk out about we just encourage they do it safely.
Cantrell
Are you concerned about the opening of the bars?
Yes, but. we are allowing the freedom for them to open up but we are asking them to follow the guidelines and for patrons to anonymously report via 3-1-1. If there are violations we will enforce the rules and penalties. We are looking at ways to allow Bourbon St to open up with seating at bars similar to restaurants. Trying to be as creative as possible that allows businesses to operate in a fashion.
Soccer when will it be back?
The state fire marshal does have guidance on outdoor sports. There are some that are clearly now allowed (full contact) like football basketball while others like running, tennis, and golf are allowed. Not sure where soccer falls in on that scale.
What were your top concerns that you saw shutting down businesses during Phase 1?
As t relates to Phase 1 we had a total of 144 businesses that had to be responded to over code enforcement with 3+ that we had to shut down.Hopeful that people will follow the rules.
How will the NOPD be held accountable for the use of rubber balls? Will there be swift action?
After the investigation, we did come to realize that officers used rubber balls without authorizations but there will be accountability. Swift action yes.
[I need to take a phone call and will not be able to finish the rest of the conference]
Where to watch: Press conference later at https://www.facebook.com/watch/mayorcantrell

[7/23/2020] Thursday's Off Topic Free Talk Thread

Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update August 19, 2020

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Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update August 19, 2020
Notes by mr_tyler_durden and Daily Update Team
Note: We may need to paraphrase, but the notes are accurate
Watch here:

Youtube: Update (YT Channel)
Facebook: Update (FB Page)

Headlines

40,926 Cases (+655), 842 Deaths (+12)
New Cases by County: 180x Jefferson, 42x Fayette, 30x Warren, 25x Franklin, 21x Scott, 19x Barren, 19x Bullitt, 18x Christian, 14x Daviess, 14x Pulaski, 13x Marion, 13x Shelby, 12x Hardin, 11x McCracken, 10x Clark, 10x Kenton, 9x Laurel, 9x Madison, 9x Oldham, 8x Boone, 8x Jessamine, 8x Johnson, 8x Marshall, 7x Henderson, 6x Mason, 6x Montgomery, 5x Floyd, 5x Harrison, 5x Knox, 5x Metcalfe, 5x Nelson, 4x Adair, 4x Campbell, 4x Grayson, 4x Green, 4x Greenup, 4x Harlan, 4x Perry, 4x Washington, 3x Bell, 3x Fulton, 3x Graves, 3x Hopkins, 3x Martin, 3x Rockcastle, 3x Spencer, 2x Bourbon, 2x Boyd, 2x Butler, 2x Carter, 2x Casey, 2x Hickman, 2x Larue, 2x Lincoln, 2x Logan, 2x Meade, 2x Pike, 2x Taylor, 2x Trimble, 1x Allen, 1x Anderson, 1x Bath, 1x Boyle, 1x Breathitt, 1x Caldwell, 1x Clinton, 1x Cumberland, 1x Elliott, 1x Grant, 1x Henry, 1x Jackson, 1x Knott, 1x Livingston, 1x Magoffin, 1x McLean, 1x Monroe, 1x Morgan, 1x Ohio, 1x Owen, 1x Owsley, 1x Pendleton
Today announcing we will be applying tomorrow for the FEMA Lost Wages Assistance program: This is the $400 additional dollars. The Fed Gov had offered $600 before, but now it’s $400, and the Labor Cabinet will file the application tomorrow. Recipients won’t get payments until early September.
I saw with the FEMA Lost wages program. At least AZ is making their payments retroactive. Is KY considering doing that? -- We are taking it all the way back to when the $600 ended: July 26th - Aug 15. It will just take us some time to get the program up and running.
Mods: There was more summarization today and I hope you all still find this useful. We will always strive to fully transcribe the opening and closing statements and the Q/A (to a very slightly lesser extent) to the best of our abilities.

Summarized (Full) Notes

Good afternoon, it is 4 o'clock. We continue to do school pride out there, this is from Conner Middle School in Boone country, they are the Colts. We appreciate them getting their school pride out, making sure that when they come back on Sept 28th, that their group is masked up and they can show a little bit of joy in doing the right thing. Let’s look at today’s quotes, we have been enjoying these at the beginning. Quotes normally come from nuggets of wisdom which means they’ve been provided by some pretty smart people and have stood the test of time as good advice. Today’s is about patience, continuing to talk about patience. Not being driven by anxiety or simply what you want to do, not ignoring the facts that exist and that every public health official is telling us about. But making sure that we are driven by true facts and that we have the patience to follow them and what they advise us to do. “Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is timing. It waits on the right time to act, for the right principles, and in the right way.”. That’s a former archbishop Fulton J Sheen. But think about that. Patience is about choosing the right time to do something. It’s a pretty important lesson in the middle of a pandemic. About when something is or is not safe. timing. Timing’s important for success. It’s important for safety. The lesson of patience is making sure we do the right thing at the right time. And I’d submit to you that some of the states out there that rushed to open way too fast, that have some of the highest positivity rates in the county and are rushing to do other things- we are seeing a lack of patience in many states. 1 week into school reopening, MIssissippi is quarantining 2000 students, and 500 teachers. That is not ok. That's 2500 families, because other people will be quarantined because they were in contact with them, based on 1 week. Those are families going through the fear that comes with this virus. You heard Rocky (Adkins) stand up here and talk the other day, that means that there are grandparents quarantine with the grandchildren they take care of with people wondering if they’re going to make it or not. And you have those kids, while we believe this virus won’t kill them, wondering about the long-term impacts are because we still don’t know. I hope they have access to the help and care they need. I want to have more patience than this. I want to select better timing than this. Everything we do, we are learning from others, and we don’t need to be the ones making mistakes in the middle of a pandemic.
Governor announces $8M more in CARES Act reimbursements to the counties of Henry, Mercer, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, Wayne, and the cities of Berea, Bloomfield, Crab Orchard, Jeffersontown, Lawrenceburg, Lebanon, Middletown, Pewee Valley, Shelbyville, Taylorsville, Wilmore, and Winchester. More can be found (including the amounts and what the money will be used for) in this press release.
Today announcing we will be applying tomorrow for the FEMA Lost Wages Assistance program: This is the $400 additional dollars. The Fed Gov had offered $600 before, but now it’s $400, and the Labor Cabinet will file the application tomorrow. This $400 will apply to all forms of UI. There are 7 other states already approved but they will be providing only $300. KY is going to CARES Funding to fill the total $400. It will use $8M a week for $24M in the initial period (3 week initial period). We’re the first state to apply for the full $400. FEMA should approve it within 48-72 hours. It’s going to take about 2 weeks to get the system to process these payments, cause it’s not the same process as the $600. Recipients won’t get payments until early September.
Positive cases today: 655 - Still in the general range of last week
Probable cases: 3,078
Total confirmed cases: 40,926
Children Under 18: 91 (14%) a few elementary school aged children, a few people under 18 in warren county, they could be freshman at WKU.
New cases by county: 180x Jefferson, 42x Fayette, 30x Warren, 25x Franklin, 21x Scott, 19x Barren, 19x Bullitt, 18x Christian, 14x Daviess, 14x Pulaski, 13x Marion, 13x Shelby, 12x Hardin, 11x McCracken, 10x Clark, 10x Kenton, 9x Laurel, 9x Madison, 9x Oldham, 8x Boone, 8x Jessamine, 8x Johnson, 8x Marshall, 7x Henderson, 6x Mason, 6x Montgomery, 5x Floyd, 5x Harrison, 5x Knox, 5x Metcalfe, 5x Nelson, 4x Adair, 4x Campbell, 4x Grayson, 4x Green, 4x Greenup, 4x Harlan, 4x Perry, 4x Washington, 3x Bell, 3x Fulton, 3x Graves, 3x Hopkins, 3x Martin, 3x Rockcastle, 3x Spencer, 2x Bourbon, 2x Boyd, 2x Butler, 2x Carter, 2x Casey, 2x Hickman, 2x Larue, 2x Lincoln, 2x Logan, 2x Meade, 2x Pike, 2x Taylor, 2x Trimble, 1x Allen, 1x Anderson, 1x Bath, 1x Boyle, 1x Breathitt, 1x Caldwell, 1x Clinton, 1x Cumberland, 1x Elliott, 1x Grant, 1x Henry, 1x Jackson, 1x Knott, 1x Livingston, 1x Magoffin, 1x McLean, 1x Monroe, 1x Morgan, 1x Ohio, 1x Owen, 1x Owsley, 1x Pendleton
Total tests conducted: 785,138 (PCR: 727,742, Serology: 45,847)
Positivity Rate: 5.41%
Total hospitalized: 4,301
Currently hospitalized: 640
Total in ICU: 1,332
Currently in ICU: 155
Currently on a Ventilator: 90 - Pray for them
Total recovered: 9,331
New deaths today: 12 - The deaths follow the numbers, the spikes. It is a tough August already, and we will see more deaths. We must follow the guidance.
Total Deaths: 842
New deaths by county: 78 M Garrard, 72 M Letcher, 82 F Barren, 75 F Harlan, 62 M Oldham, 58 F Hart, 79 F Butler, 82 M Mercer, 81 F Logan, 91 M Logan, 86 M Barren, 42 M Warren
The decisions we make moving forward not only affect schools, it affects lives. No one on this list should have left before their time. Never accept those comments, “this just takes the lives of older Kentuckians.” They matter too. But we just lost a 42 year old today. It’s hitting us, and it’s all over the state.
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: 79.50% Caucasian, 12.30% Black or African-American, 2.05% Asian, 5.58% Multiracial
Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 86.86% non-Hispanic and 13.14% Hispanic
Racial breakdown of all deaths: 81.83% Caucasian, 14.18% Black or African-American, 1.42% Asian, 2.58% Multiracial
Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 96.37% non-Hispanic and 3.63% Hispanic
Long Term Care Facilities: 25 new residents and 17 new staff positive from yesterday, and 2 more deaths, 2 new facilities. We are now seeing more of our daily deaths be outside LTC than we have thus far. Shows you community spread.
- Total facilities: 289
- Total deaths: 510
- Total recovered: 3,495
- Active cases: 467 residents, 296 staff
- Total cases: 3011 residents, 1757 staff
WH Report RED zones: You can’t address a problem if you can’t admit it is a problem. This is the Trump administration that puts this out. Both their administration and mine both agree on this. We have to take the steps needed.
YELLOW zones: It’s a whole lot. It shows where the spread is, and what it’s going to take to stop it.
We see more people wearing masks. That’s why we're not AL, MS, AZ, TX, or FL. Remember to post to Social Media! Let’s show our fellow Kentuckians positive vibes-
Hashtags: #MaskUpKY #TeamKentucky #TogetherKY #Patriot #HealthyAtHome #HealthyAtWork #HealthyAtSchool
Kevin at Daughtery’s Hospital. Once we take a little bit of joy in this, is when we get out of this. Moving our counties out of the RED and YELLOW, it’s something we can do.
Madeline Potter- offering free masks for those that need them in front of the school daily until they run out. Our educators are some of the best of us, they never stop. I want to make sure we are also the best of us for them. The contacts that our educators are going to have are significant. Their lives matter.
Meade County- Lincoln Trail Health Department, this is Tom Bridge, Pastor and the E911 coordinator. We appreciate him showing the right example.
Capitol Building - This is what I see every night out of the window. Every night and every morning a reminder, send me a picture if there is a bigger green light. I can’t remember when the Dome wasn't green. Maybe March, early April. We have lost 24 people in the last 2 days. That is very serious to me. Let’s make sure we care about one another.
Dr. Stack takes over:
No facts or figures today, just a general message. March 6 started this journey. We’re tired. We want to get back to our normal lives. We want to find ways to get back to normalcy. The Governor shared his thoughts on the data, we tried to get you all the facts and data we can. It’s not always perfect but it is useful and requires some informed interpretation and honestly when things take a different turn or don’t turn out how we expect. It is difficult, we are all finding it difficult to not get demoralized. We’re not here to separate you from your job, your social life- we want to get you back to all of that. And I can't wait to talk to you about those things. But we can’t rationalize our way out of this. We have no vaccine, no cure, no treatment. When it hits people hard, it hits them really hard- it can overwhelm the hospitals and causes the loss of life. When you look at NYC and the Spanish flu and COVID-19. When you look at the deaths leading up to the Spanish flu, it was nearly a 3-fold increase in deaths when the Spanish Flu hit NYC. You look at COVID-19, NYC, all caused-deaths, It is 4 fold over the previous year. 50 people per 100,000 deaths have already been exceeded by a factor of 4 because of COVID-19. That’s only with 1/5th at best guess of people who have been infected with COVID-19. That means there’s still 80% of the population, susceptible to this. I want us to get back to schools. I realize sports is like religion for a lot of folks but we can’t pretend harm won’t happen. Please, listen to the public health folks, and listen to those in the other states. You won’t find much inconsistency. We’re all saying to wear masks, stay 6 ft apart. Wash your hands. Screen yourself for infection. Stay home if you’re sick. If we don’t do those things, more things will shut down. On a human level, I have to encourage you to do the right thing. Don’t make this confrontational. We all want to get back to those things that we miss so much. Hopefully when we enter 2021, we will be giving people vaccines and be able to neutralise this threat and get back to things the way we used to know it. Thank you Governor, I appreciate it.

QUESTIONS

The AG has issued an opinion saying that religious schools can comply with the distancing guidelines and other COVID-19 recommendations. -- No one is trying to close any school that is complying with guidelines and preventing outbreaks. I don’t know where that came from.
Spoke with McConnell today about CARES Act Funding- he criticized KY for only spending 6% so far and said there are a number of things that could be spent on if the state wants to justify asking for more? -- The answer is the same as yesterday. If someone says “You have a really terrible budget coming up and I might provide more CARES Act money for it or I might make you use money you have already been given but why aren’t you spending money that has already been provided?”. Until you make that decision the state can’t make a decision on how to spend those initial dollars. We just announced we are going to be spending $8M/week for UI assistance. If you don’t give us any type of certainty, then we spend all the money, and then there isn’t any more money coming then education and healthcare will suffer in the next budget, the things we all care about. If they aren’t going to provide money for state stabilization then they need to give us access to the initial round for use on our current budget issues. You can’t spend the money on the things you need it the most for. A rock and a hard place. It’s still there and any concept of “We aren’t going to give you state budget stabilization until you spend the dollars you can’t spend on state budget stabilization and after spending them, you might say that we you should have held them to use for state budget stabilization” That doesn’t allow for an informed decision.
You said we will only be participating in the UI assistance for 3 weeks. What will it take to extend that? -- The initial participation on the application is three weeks on the additional Unemployment. We fully intend to provide additional unemployment further. It will depend on how much the federal government is going to give us. We were concerned it might run out after 5 weeks for instance. It will also depend on if Congress comes back and does this and could do this in an easier way. This is not criticizing the President. But congress could bring back $400, all funded by the federal government, done in the same way. That would be easier to implement, and I’m sure everybody would be happier with that.
If a district is returning to in-person classes with COVID-19 testing positive in their area restricted to those with symptoms, how are teachers supposed to get tested? -- We have over 200 locations across KY for testing, many if not most don’t require you to have symptoms. This question is a reporter in the Louisville area, there are at least 2 places in that area to get tested even if you don’t have symptoms. One is the Norton testing, the second is UofL testing you can go online and sign up for them. That testing is free. Kroger testing is back in Lexington, we will have about 2 weeks more of Kroger doing that testing. We want to make sure that as many people can sign up as possible. We didn’t know that they were going to be able to come back. We know there have been testing shortages in this area so lets make sure that we fill up those appointments.
Yesterday you said you’d have an announcement on evictions today, but there wasn't one? -- It’s going to be tomorrow. We are getting some of the final details on this together. Admittedly I am pushing people to move their timeinelines up and up and up. What normally happens is someone tells me they can do something in 4 weeks and I say how about 4 days, then hopefully we get some very short amount of time
Student athletes had a campaign that said “Let us Play”. Meanwhile, others have called for local leaders to decide if their school will play sports. What’s your best message to the student athletes right now? -- Let’s make sure it’s safe. Let’s make a wise decision that will give you the best opportunity to play your season. I haven’t heard of the final decision of where KHASA is going to come down. If we rushed ahead with a high contact sport with what we have, the number of positives out there, I can think of at least 3 football teams that have had outbreaks related to the weight room or conditioning. What would be the likelihood we could finish the season? I hope people consider that too. Those student athletes want to have as much of a season as possible. What does that mean? We need to look at the data and if necessary, be patient. We have to think about will you just play 2 games and then the rest of the season might be canceled? Or if we are patient then we might be able to play 8, 9, 10 of those games and have a championship. I just tell people, just because we’ve done something 1 way doesn’t mean that’s the best chance to have the best and biggest experience. I want my son to be able to play middle school baseball. I think we might be able to make the team, but I want him to have the best shot to play as many games safely when they do that.
Will this new benefit put extra strain on the already strained system? -- The Senate Leadership apparently had a press conference, I’ve only heard bits and pieces of it, where they criticized the handling of UI but I got a letter 1-2 days ago asking to do the $400 which is what we are doing. Sometimes I worry there is more concern about attacking than doing the right thing. I’ll just continue to do the right thing. If there’s any extra thing we can provide our families then we want to. Will it provide extra strain? Sure, but it’s the right thing to do. I know our people are going to work as hard as they can. Let’s not pretend we’re in a vacuum. Other states are struggling too, every state is struggling with the huge demand of what I hope is very short-term UI. Going back to another question, I believe that just about every economist would say the amount of time it will take to bounce back depends on if we get budget stabilization. If we have to cut state and local governments it will take longer to bounce back.
- Does this mean that people who are waiting for their benefits will have to wait longer? -- No. The people that are waiting are mostly waiting on that 2 page letter. We expect those numbers to improve significantly over the next couple of days, it takes 48 hours for those numbers to change based on processing of the system. We probably won’t be able to provide these dollars until the very beginning of September but that’s why we are starting to work on it now.
Some universities in other states have already had to close. UK has a 1% positivity rate right now..What are the guidelines or criteria for them to close? -- We need to look at the data and talk to any of those universities. We are, however, going to begin tracking by universities. UK is putting that information out. There have been comments that others might not. Students, parents of those students, and faculty deserve to know the overall number of cases. You want to protect people’s identities, so there are certain things that you don’t put out. Some things that we would probably look at are clusters, or people that are very close together. Is it one fraternity or sorority that is making up a large amount, and can you effectively quarantine them? Is it wider community spread? I think what we’re seeing across the country is very concerning. We need our college students, we really need them to be better than just about any other college student, when you think about what we’re asking them not to do. We also need to be realistic as adults that there’s really only so much that we can expect.
Will sports, band, and other activities be able to practice or have games when people aren’t actually in school? -- Yes, depending on how it’s done. Can you get an entire marching band together, marching closely, practicing? You know, that’s tough. But can you get smaller groups like pods, like we currently have with different practices? Sure you can. If you are smart about this, if you can mitigate the risk, then some of this that already has guidance out there and has been allowed during the summer. We also have guidance out there on our schools that are waiting, are going to be able to bring in small groups of students, get them their chromebooks if that’s what they’re doing, let them meet their teachers, and get them out quickly. It’s about limiting the duration of time but also knowing that schools need that flexibility to make sure they can establish the relationships that they need to.
I saw with the FEMA Lost wages program. At least AZ is making their payments retroactive. Is KY considering doing that? -- We are taking it all the way back to when the $600 ended: July 26th - Aug 15. It will just take us some time to get the program up and running.
Since you’re reporting the K-12 schools who have a high positivity rate. Are you going to do the same for universities? -- Yes. We will have a similar system for that. We were working on that today.
Senate President Stivers doesn’t trust your statistics. Do you have a response? -- Every positive has a person attached to it with an age and a county. Every day we go back through each day and we have to audit it. We have a committee that ensures the death numbers are accurate. We audit it every day to make it better. Listen, you got data from us, that shows we are in a concerning place. You have data from the WH that is similar, so I guess that the senate president disagrees with the president as well. Here is the problem, when you just want to do what you want to do then you attach the data whether it’s ours or the presidents and you’re not going to believe anything we put out there. Those people aren’t making decisions with Dr Birx or Dr Stack, they are making decisions over Dr Pepper , I mean you’ve got to have public health advice, you have to look a the actual data, and it’s undeniable where we are right now. We are in the midst of a worldwide health pandemic and some just want to ignore it, why? Because we want to do stuff. I want to do stuff too but the 1st thing I’m going to do is save lives and make sure we protect our kids.
LTC in Georgetown is allowing construction workers inside the facility. Is this allowed? -- That’s concerning to me, I’m looking at Sec. Friedlander, and we are going to have to look at that one specifically. That’s news to me and we are going to have to make sure that is being done safely. We will look directly at that situation.
- Sec. Friedlander: This is depending on the facility. Our infection control team will reach out to make sure that the proper PPE is being followed, proper sectioning off, and our office of the IG will go in and if there are complaints and concerns. We probably need to get with you to find out which facility and then I can be more specific about what our response has been.
Any idea how many Kentuckians will qualify for the new UI benefit? -- Let’s get you specific numbers. We’ve been able to calculate our cost on it. That’s how we got our numbers. $100 a week, $800 million, so it’s a significant number of Kentuckians, certainly in the hundreds of thousands. We’re doing it across all the different types that we talked about PUA and regular UI. The initial application changes some of the different types, about who could get the dollars, if you didn’t put in the extra $100. This has been a work in progress, not from just the federal administration but from our side, too. We believe, at least right now, everyone who qualified for the $600 will qualify for the $400. We will provide some additional clarity on that. I can tell you that if there are limitations, it won’t be on the state’s side. This is a time where we want to make sure we’re there for everybody. While it has taken us too long for many people, we have tried to make sure that we can include as many as possible.

END QUESTIONS

Wrapping up a little early tonight. We went over a little late last night. We’ll be back tomorrow at 4pm. Just remember, we can do this. We can beat this. We don’t do it through denial: Claiming that it isn’t a problem, or it’s just the flu. We don’t do it through rationalization: “I don't believe the numbers.” Or “I'm going to do my own back-of-the-envelope math.” We first accept that there is a problem. We then get the best facts,and we have public health experts on how to address the problem. Then we take those steps that we know will help us triumph over the problem and we put them into action. I’m not making Democrat decisions, I'm not making Republician decisions. I’m making public health decisions to protect our people. I can’t control if other people get political about it, I can't. But I can control what I do. And doing the right thing, and I think you know that I’m doing the right thing, cause I got to make unpopular decision after unpopular decision. But I committed that I was going to do my very best in this job. That I was always going to put our families before myself. And that’s what we’re doing. So I’m going to keep doing the very best that I can. Making the very best decisions that I can. Giving the best recommendations that I can. We just need everybody else to the best that they can, to do the right things. To not yell at each other and to make sure that we admit what we are facing is a 1 in every 100 year worldwide health pandemic, that’s killed, what, 170,000 people in this country. It’s pretty darn serious. Let’s treat it as such. Thanks.

If you have been laid off/lost your job use the following resources to get help!
KY Medicaid: https://healthbenefitexchange.ky.gov (855-459-6328)
Benefind: https://benefind.ky.gov (855-306-8959)
If you see price gouging report by calling 888-432-9257
If you see a business or person not following the guidelines and putting others at risk call 833-KY-SAFER (833-597-2337) or report it on the website
As always our one true source of information should be the http://kycovid19.ky.gov/ website or the hotline: 800-722-5725
You can find more information on our Wiki!
We are also up and running on Discord!

WATCH LIVE 2:30 PM - Governor John Bel Edwards COVID-19 Press Conference

LINKS TO WATCH

Summary

Storms - Edwards is wearing a ridiculously bright Tiffany blue tie. - Addresses the possibility of two named storms in the Gulf of Mexico by next week. - The team at GOSHEP is monitoring the systems and encourage to do likewise. - Tropical Depression 13 is expected to enter the Eastern Gulf next week and become a hurricane before landfall. - Anytime there is a storm forecast to enter the Gulf we should pay attention. - Tropical Depression 14 is moving westward towards Yucatan forecast to become a tropical storm presently with the most recent cone including a portion of Coastal Louisiana covering from Central Coast on westward. - GOSHEP will coordinate with OEP leaders in the regions of our state. - Check emergency supplies and check needs related to the pandemic. Think about what you would need to do if a hurricane impacts your area and you need to get by the first couple of days without any assistance. - Pay attention to local officials and monitor the situation. - Go to GetAGamePlan.org
COVID Updates - Today we report 1,034 new cases off of 14,722 tests. - Based on the number of tests conducted in August we believe we will have tested 500k-600k tests by the end of the month, which is more than 2x-3x our monthly goal of 200,000 tests. - Thanks to everyone who is involved in testing. - Having more testing allows us to know more about what COVID is like in Louisiana and what it is doing. - As of August 14th, our statewide positivity rate is 8.77% which is better than what it has been for quite some time. - At a minimum, you want to be below 10%. - The state is currently yellow for case positivity rate but remains in red-state for new cases as defined by the CDC. - All of this indicates we are moving in the right direction. - 4 of the state's 9 regions are testing below 10%. - We are seeing improvement in the state and every region of the state. - However, gains have been modest and are very fragile and can be lost. Worried about being more mobile with K-12 and college campuses opening. More people will be coming into contact with one another than we have seen since early March. * It is more important than ever that people follow all of the restrictions and mitigation measures that are in place. * Encourage parents to pay close attention to their children's health especially if they are partaking in in-person education. * Tomorrow 40 out of our 69 school districts will be open. * No district is open for all in-person instruction, some are virtual only and others are hybrid. * School kids should not go to school if they are sick. - Sadly we are reporting 28 additional deaths, today includes first death in Tensas parish. - Hospitalization continues to decline with 73 fewer patients reported than yesterday. Today is the biggest drop in hospitalization we have seen in a long time. - Sadly, today we report 28 new deaths. - If we stayed on the same trajectory that we were on July 27th before we got to the 1,600 we would have more than a thousand people hospitalized in the sate than we currently do. * Mitigation measures are working and the numbers are coming down. - Some of you may have seen the results of the seroprevalence study that Ochsner did in a 5 parish area of the capital region. 2,100 adults were tested between July 15-July 31st. Of those 2,100 people who were tested simultaneously for the virus or the antibodies, results showed that 60% of those who tested positive for the virus were asymptomatic. * This makes for a challenging situation because asymptomatic people will be less likely to be tested or know they have it. * Everyone must act as if they have it and follow the mitigation measures. * If you take the percentage of people who were asymptomatic but positive for COVID-19 and extrapolate to the 5 parish area... there were 10,000 people within 5 parishes who were asymptomatic but carrying the virus and contagious during the testing time. * This is why we need to follow the data and science to keep people safe, out of the hospital, and out of the graveyard. It really is that simple. * Another standout from the study was that the symptom that had the strongest correlation to testing positive for the virus was the loss of taste and smell. - Yesterday JBE sent a letter to FEMA to ask to request an increase in the cost-share of federal assistance provided to the state for this public health emergency. * As we have been responding to COVID-19 we have now exceeded the monetary cost threshold to move from the 75/25 match to a 90/10 match. It does have to be approved by the President and that approval must be requested, which we have done. It is the FEMA funding that comes from the disaster relief fund which allows us to pay enhanced unemployment benefits that allowed us to go over that threshold. We know should know more soon. - Reminder to business owners that we want to help you to navigate the implementation of safe practices during this time so please visit opensafely.la.gov and read the entire document to know how it pertains to your business type. * Information on spacing, crowd management, sanitation practices, mask requirements, how to ask customers to wear a mask, and those sorts of things. * Info for non-traditional organizations as well (example churches). - There is a lot going on 2 storms, a virus, unemployment assistance we have to get out. - We plan to have the next conference on Tuesday at 2:30 but storms may change that plan.

Questions

Can you explain the turn regarding LSU's reverse of-course to begin publishing test results? Can you expand on what your administration is advising universities when it comes to testing results and what should be reporting in regards to rest results.
Yesterday there was a meeting and Dr. Billioux was there so I'm going to ask him to come up. My instructions to the Dept. of Health and Dept. Education is to be as timely and transparent as we can be with the accurate reporting of data. We believe that granular reporting should come from the insertions himself. I was not in the meeting but Dr. Billioux was and he needs to earn his pay so I'm going to ask him to come up.
Dr. Billioux The decision by LSU or any other university before that meeting was without the input from us. That was their own decision. Our biggest interest is understanding where our cases are and if there is a pattern or a risk in which we see cases linked. [That way] we are intervening as early as possible to protect more people from being exposed to cases. So the information we are looking for is really about on-campus students. It will be a challenge for us to handle them in the same way that we would a business where you are talking about a single building or multiple floors. On-campus you are talking about on-campus, off-campus, sprawled outbuildings, basically a variety of places that can be associated with an outbreak. So we focused on understanding the cases that are developing in association with on-campus students, which is what we will be focused on in our reporting. We want information from the universities in aggregate about what they are finding in regard to cases. At any time they have lots of virtual students, and many universities at this time are emphasizing off-campus education/off-campus virtual classes. So there is a theoretical possibility than a LSU student who is living at home with their parents in Lafayette develops COVID as a result of community spread there and that is different to us than someone who develops it living in downtown Baton Rouge attending LSU.
Do you have more specific information in regards to where outbreaks are happening on campus?
Keep in mind this is all still under the umbrella of contact tracing. Any positive result will still trigger a contact tracing outreach and we may find out through a call that they are a student on campus. So there is bidirectional sharing between campuses and us. It is not a single process. We want to maintain a good relationship so at the end of the day we are quickly identifying anything that can be a risk to the students of the public.
Sen. Cassidy tested positive via rapid testing can you expand on the importance of rapid testing?
I won't speak about anyone specific, but rapid tests are a really important part of our armory. Rapid testing is great because it is deployable in a variety of settings and you get an answer very quickly between 15 minutes or less. However, it comes with some limitations. Usually, they are conducted one at a time, and due to the nature in the manner they are run, it may not be as sensitive and may give some false negatives. In some cases, it may give a wrong result due to the wrong administration. For instance, Gov. Dewine had a positive rapid result and when they did a lab PCR test they found it was negative. It does not mean it should not be used, but rather that it should be used in the right context. Often with rapid tests, depending on how high risk an individual is, we recommend follow-up testing as well.
LSU said they had testing surge sites on campus that are similar to the federal ones we saw. Are there any federal testing surge sites where people can get tested without symptoms in Louisiana?
In general just like we have been working with universities with their plans to reopen we have also been talking to them about their testing strategies. We continue to adhere largely to the CDC guidance which says you want to test people who have symptoms or have a reason to be tested such as exposure versus conducting population-wide testing. However, we know universities may want to test a subset of their population to see if there is spread on their campus to allow them to intervene earlier. We offer to answer any questions we can and to give them our policy recommendation but ultimately what they deploy is up to their own decision. Complexities on whether the testing is being done in a diagnostic capacity or surveillance capacity also come into play in regards to payment.
Federal surge sites are currently up and running across the New Orleans area with two new additional sites opening tomorrow. They are available for anyone to come and be tested. Currently, all of our community testing sites accept people who want to be tested. We do not have a policy that states only people with symptoms should be tested and to turn away anyone, unless they run out of testing supplies. So both federal and community testing sites are open to the public to get tested.
In regards to testing in the K-12 schools will there be a universal reporting system for all districts
From our standpoint, we want to be as transparent as we can and this includes higher education and K-12 schools. However this is complex because there are both private and public schools and information on which children may be absent (and thereby not exposing other students or faculty) in which the school would know and we would not. We only have information on test results. So we believe the schools have the best way of assessing what is going on a daily basis in that school. We want to support schools and have bidirectional communication so when we know about a student who may have tested positive we inform them and visa versa. The earlier we have this information the earlier we can intervene and avoid school closures. It is certainly a risk when we have spread without us being able to share this information.
Is there a minimum amount of information we request for the schools to report?
All positive tests are mandatorily reportable to the LDH regardless if they are schoolchildren or anyone else. Right now we are working with the Dept. of Education to build that bidirectional relationship. They don't want to wait to know if they had a student who tested positive. So if we have the information they don't, we want to share that information with them so they can make decisions about other people in the classroom. They know their communities better than we do and we want to make sure they have been communicating with parents and we want that great communication to continue.
Governor JBE
Do you have a date the $300 unemployment payments will begin to flow
No, other than next week as soon as possible. The first $375 million dollars has been transferred and we are updating our system to make sure it properly identifies who is eligible for the enhanced payment. My instructions for the workforce committee were to have it available as soon as possible. I can commit to next week but I would like to believe it would be earlier in the week.
More SEC schools are releasing guidance as far as capacity. As of Tuesday, you said you hadn't received any plans from schools have you received anything from LSU yet?
I had a great meeting yesterday morning with officials at LSU in the athletic department. We had a great discussion. I did not receive a formal plan but they told me all the things they are thinking about--the CDC guidelines they are implementing, and what that would look like on the game day. It was really a case of getting me up to speed with what they are planning. With the first home game being Sept. 26 when we will beat the Mississippi Bulldogs, that plan would have to be approved 2.5-3 weeks before that for them to be able to implement it. There is a little bit of time left for them to refine the plan and get it to me. I anticipate having the plan in the next 10 days.
So to clarify you anticipate having directions 2-3 weeks before gamely on Sept. 26th? I do expect there will be a decision made in the next 10-12 days and an announcement shortly after. This is true of everything we do in the state of Louisiana. Any decision you make in early September as for what is going to be in place on Sept. 26/later in the month is a preliminary tentative decision. Because every day you continue to get new data and you make a decision based on what that data is like and try to determine where you think you will be when that plan is implemented, but you continue to make refinements based on additional data so I just want to caution people that if you hear something at the beginning of the month of what it will look like at the end understand that is always subject to change. That is what makes this so difficult. This is why I spend so much time telling you I cannot decide what will happen next week until it is next week.

Closing Remarks

Thank you for covering this emergency and thank you to the people in Louisiana for doing the hard work they have done. When we had the second surge and we moved into No 1 in cases per capita in the country. I said that we had done it once before and we would do it again. That it would look different and the gains would be slower and take more time. What we are seeing right now is the fulfillment of that and if we continue to have success, and have more people to buy into these mitigation measures... if we have a higher percentage of people who wear masks, socially distance from those who are not in their household, stay home when sick, wash hands frequently, and reduce trips outside of the home, then we will continue to be successful.
It is more important for us now more than ever to double down on all of the migration measures and restrictions that we know work because we are introducing an element of the unknown by having schools and universities reopening.
Urge everyone to do their part.
Urge everyone to pay attention to weather systems.
Lift one another in prayer.
Pray, I do not see you before 2:30 Tuesday because if I see you before then it means one of those weather systems has taken aim at us.

Mod note: This is the second press conference he has not mentioned being a good neighbor

Covid-19 update 26th March

Good morning from the UK. For those of you also in quarantine who have lost track and didn't read the post headline, today is a Thursday.

Picture of the day

Virus statistics

Total cases

Region	24th Mar	23rd Mar	17th Mar	% 24 hr change	% 1 week change
China	81661	81591	81102	0.1%	0.7%
Italy	74386	69176	35713	7.5%	108.3%
US	65778	53740	7783	22.4%	745.1%
Spain	49515	39885	13910	24.1%	256.0%
Germany	37323	32986	12327	13.1%	202.8%
Iran	27017	24811	17361	8.9%	55.6%
France	25600	22622	9124	13.2%	180.6%
Switzerland	10897	9877	3028	10.3%	259.9%
United Kingdom	9640	8164	2642	18.1%	264.9%
Korea, South	9137	9037	8413	1.1%	8.6%
Netherlands	6438	5580	2058	15.4%	212.8%
Austria	5588	5283	1646	5.8%	239.5%
Belgium	4937	4269	1486	15.6%	232.2%
Canada	3251	2790	657	16.5%	394.8%
Norway	3084	2863	1550	7.7%	99.0%
Portugal	2995	2362	448	26.8%	568.5%
Brazil	2554	2247	372	13.7%	586.6%
Sweden	2526	2286	1279	10.5%	97.5%

Deaths

Region	24th Mar	23rd Mar	17th Mar	% 24 hr change	% 1 week change
Italy	7503	6820	2978	10.0%	151.9%
Spain	3647	2808	623	29.9%	485.4%
China	3285	3281	3241	0.1%	1.4%
Iran	2077	1934	1135	7.4%	83.0%
France	1333	1102	149	21.0%	794.6%
US	942	706	118	33.4%	698.3%
United Kingdom	466	423	72	10.2%	6547.2%
Netherlands	357	277	58	28.9%	515.5%
Germany	206	157	28	31.2%	635.7%
Belgium	178	122	14	45.9%	1171.4%
Switzerland	153	122	28	25.4%	446.4%
Korea, South	126	120	84	5.0%	50.0%
Sweden	62	36	10	72.2%	520.0%
Turkey	59	44	1	34.1%	5800.0%
Brazil	59	46	3	28.3%	1866.7%
Indonesia	58	55	19	5.5%	205.3%

In depth Virus news

Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure - Bloomberg reports that there are increasing calls from some business leaders to get people back to work. They want to revive an economy that could face its worst quarterly drop ever -- even if it means pulling back on social distancing measures that public health officials say can help stop coronavirus. These investors aren’t prizing profits over lives, they say, they’re just willing to risk some horrors to avoid others. “You’re picking the better of two evils,” said Golisano (founder and chairman of the payroll processor Paychex Inc), who wants people to go back to their offices in states that have been relatively spared by the coronavirus but remain at home in hot spots. “You have to weigh the pros and cons.” Dick Kovacevich (ex Wells Fargo & Co. CEO until 200), wants to see healthy workers below about 55 or so to return to work late next month if the outbreak is under control. “We’ll gradually bring those people back and see what happens. Some of them will get sick, some may even die, I don’t know,” said Kovacevich, who was also the bank’s chairman until 2009. “Do you want to suffer more economically or take some risk that you’ll get flu-like symptoms and a flu-like experience? Do you want to take an economic risk or a health risk? You get to choose.”

Andy Slavitt's daily twitter opinion piece has come out and it's a mixed bag - Andy Slavitt (Former Medicare, Medicaid, ACA head for Obama and well worth following on Twitter) has given his daily thread update here. The takeaways: Infections are climbing faster than in the other severely hit countries. More could die from lack of access to a bed or a nurse or a ventilator than necessary. The shelter in place restrictions make absolute sense. The scientists are gloomy, they generally don’t like any solution or recommendation other than complete lock down, testing we don’t have, and strict controls. He calls Trump's suggestion to "pack the churches" on Easter the "Easter Sunday massacre". "America First is becoming America Last as other governments are centralizing decisions. Ordering tests. Centralizing supply orders. Distributing according to need. One amazing scientist told me our curve will go “from vertical to erect” if we don’t change these simple things."

13 Deaths in a Day: An ‘Apocalyptic’ Coronavirus Surge at an N.Y.C. Hospital - The NY Times (paywall, link) says that hospitals in the city are facing the kind of harrowing increases in cases that overwhelmed health care systems in China and Italy. A doctor gives his view; “The frustrating thing about all of this is it really just feels like it’s too little, too late. Like we knew — we knew it was coming. Today is kind of getting worse and worse. We had to get a refrigerated truck to store the bodies of patients who are dying. We are, right now, scrambling to try to get a few additional ventilators or even CPAP machines. If we could get CPAP machines, we could free up ventilators for patients who need them. You know, we now have these five vents. We probably — unless people die, I suspect we’ll be back to needing to beg for ventilators again in another day or two. There’s a mythical 100 vents out there which we haven’t seen. Leaders in various offices, from the president to the head of Health and Hospitals, saying things like, ‘We’re going to be fine. Everything’s fine.’ And from our perspective, everything is not fine.... I want people to know that this is bad. People are dying. We don’t have the tools that that we need in the emergency department and in the hospital to take care of them, and — and it’s really hard." There's also a video of the scenes inside the hospital here.

How the Pandemic Will End: The U.S. may end up with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the industrialized world. This is how it’s going to play out. - The Atlantic has written a lengthy opinion piece (here) discussing what it thinks is likely to happen in the coming weeks and months in the US. A study released by a team at Imperial College London concluded that if the pandemic is left unchecked, those beds will all be full by late April. By the end of June, for every available critical-care bed, there will be roughly 15 COVID-19 patients in need of one. By the end of the summer, the pandemic will have directly killed 2.2 million Americans, notwithstanding those who will indirectly die as hospitals are unable to care for the usual slew of heart attacks, strokes, and car accidents. It goes on to explain what it thinks needs to change to avoid this worst case scenario.

Mississippi governor Orders Limited Gatherings, Declares Most Businesses 'Essential,' Supersedes Local Safety Efforts - The Jackson Free press reports (link). The order seems to declare that most types of businesses in Mississippi are "essential" and thus exempt from social-distancing requirements suggested in the order. "The uninterrupted delivery of essential services and functions is vital to infrastructure viability, critical to maintain continuity of functions critical to public health and safety, as well as economic and national security, and is crucial to community resilience, continuity of essential functions and to promote the security and safety of Mississippi residents even as the nation limits human interaction and engages in social distancing," the order stated. Notably, Reeves' executive order supersedes any orders by local mayors or other governing body in Mississippi that conflict with the businesses and organizations he deems exempt as "essential" businesses. Examples of business declared as "essential" by the governor include department stores, offices, factories whilst cafes and restaurants can remain open provided no more than 10 people are dining in at any time. These rules are much more liberal than most other states.

Other virus news in brief (Source: Today's Guardian live blog unless otherwise sourced)

- Sky news reports that Briton Chloe Middleton who was 21 with no apparent pre-existing health conditions has died in the UK after contracting COVID-19 (link)
- Port of Virginia imports first containers of rare Covid-19 test kits, medical gear: DC Velocity says (link) that testing kits are starting to arrive and will be fast tracked through the port for onward delivery as quickly as possible.
- Victorville in California (a well known storage area for out of service airplanes) is starting to fill up as major American carriers start to park up planes due to a collapse in demand (LA Times)
- Progress is being made in preparing a bill in the US for bailing out the airline industry. Airlines would get the $60 billion bailout they asked for in the new Senate coronavirus stimulus bill, which would prohibit layoffs and ban stock buybacks and dividends. Business Insider has more if you're interested.
- ‘This Is Not A Game’: Perdue Farms Workers Walk Out Over Coronavirus Concerns - Approximately 50 workers at the Perdue Farms plant in Kathleen, Georgia, walked off the job Monday morning, saying they don’t feel safe working there during the coronavirus pandemic according to a Local news report. Kendaliyn Granville told CBS affiliate WMAZ some workers on the production line were in contact with people who tested positive for COVID-19 and the company should do more to protect workers. “We’re not getting nothing — no type of compensation, no nothing, not even no cleanliness, no extra pay — no nothing. We’re up here risking our life for chicken,” she said. Perdue says it is doing “everything we can to take good care of our Associates while continuing to produce safe and reliable food.”
- An outbreak of the virus onboard the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt has infected another 5 sailors bringing the total so far to 8 (The Hill)
- The NBA Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns has seen his mother end up in a coma due to the virus. He published a video on YouTube discussing it and urges everyone to take the virus seriously. "The severity is real", he said. His father (who also caught the virus and had less of a reaction to it) is quarantining at home.
- Americans, find out how social distancing (or not social distancing) will affect the outbreak in your state here.
- Video: Overcrowding on the NYC transit system remains a problem despite the major outbreak there (ABC News Twitter link). Similar problems have been reported already in London (which also has an outbreak).
- Article from 25th February: We have contained this. I won’t say [it’s] airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight,” said Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council. How times rapidly change.
- Miss going to the pub? Go to a virtual one instead here: https://www.thestayinginn.co.uk/ it's got all the ambience right down to the posh man talking too loudly.
- Bad news: the National Hurricane Centre is calling for an above average hurricane season with 2-4 major ones says Fox News. The Hurricane season runs from June to the end of October.
- Come again...? US craft/hobby retail chain Michaels has told employees they are 'essential' and must continue working 'for the makers' during the coronavirus outbreak. "I am so worried for my coworkers," a Michaels manager speaking on the condition of anonymity told Business Insider. "If I get sick I will likely recover without incident. My coworkers and other vulnerable people could die. We are expendable. Just a means to make money." There's more on this here.

Supply chain specific news

The problems with invoking the defense production act - Californian Democrat Congresswoman Katie Porter has attacked President Trump on Twitter (link) over his announcement that he's invoking the defense production act (an act dating back to 1950 which allows the US government to mandate manufacturing to produce articles badly in need by the country). She says that the Trump administration has not finalized the rules for ordering emergency medical supplies. The result is that whilst the Administration says it's placing orders under the Defense Production Act, it seems that the department for Health and Human Services (HHS) doesn't have policies in place to actually execute those orders or coordinate them with agencies like FEMA. Don't expect PPE and ventilator shortages in the US to ease any time soon.

Indian seaports declare force majeure - Splash247 says that several major Indian ports, including those operated by Adani Ports, the country’s largest private port operator, have declared force majeure as the country started a three-week lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. India’s shipping ministry has issued a letter allowing ports to consider the coronavirus pandemic as valid grounds for invoking force majeure on port activities and operations. The decision follows the government of India announcing a nationwide lockdown on March 24 and will affect all 1.3bn of its citizens. A consultant from CTI said "Where ports are either closed or congested, liners will then need to over-carry imports and discharge them elsewhere for transhipment and later shipment back to their destination ports. Additional costs, and containers detained for longer will be the outcome. The inability to lift exports can have negative impacts on load factors and utilisation,”. (Personal note: Expects delays and costs in the Indian supply chain to get worse in the coming weeks as a result of this).

Three American carriers seek emergency tie-up - Splash247 reports (Link) that three American container lines have sought to form an emergency alliance to cope with the virus fall out. “The proposed agreement would authorize Crowley, King Ocean and Seaboard to discuss and agree upon the removal of one or more vessels from their trades, the coordination of timetables, sailing dates, frequency of sailings, and the carrying capacity offered by each of them,” Alphaliner noted in its most recent weekly report.

LA, Long Beach terminals adjust hours to disinfect between shifts - Freightwaves says Los Angeles and Long Beach container terminals have adjusted their second-shift operating hours to provide time to disinfect all handling equipment between shifts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the daily cleaning and disinfecting of frequently touched surfaces and objects to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Second-shift gate operations now begin at 7 p.m. and end at 4 a.m. at APM Terminals’ Pier 400 at the Port of LA as well as Everport Terminal Services, Fenix Marine Services, TraPac, West Basin Container Terminal and Yusen Terminals.

Supply chain companies to launch healthcare industry exchange - DCVelocity says that supply chain technology and risk management firm Resilinc is responding to increased demand for critical healthcare supplies by launching the Resilinc Exchange, an online clearinghouse designed to match available inventory with hospitals that need items to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including personal protective equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies. In a webinar held Thursday, the company outlined plans for the exchange, which officials say they hope to launch by mid April.

Is It Time to Rethink Globalized Supply Chains? - MIT Sloan (one of the globally leading supply chain business schools) has an interesting 7 minute read (currently not behind its paywall) on how supply chains need to adapt once the pandemic is over. Students will probably like this one as it's littered with case study examples to borrow from. It calls for more localization, reassessing your product mix and thoroughly reviewing your risk exposure.

Other supply chain stuff in brief

- COVID-19 threatens driver training, supply - The Commercial Vehicle Training Association (CVTA) in the US says that each month the industry is shut down prevents 25,000 to 45,000 new drivers from entering the profession and warns of potential shortages in a few months. (Freightwaves link)
- Wallenius Wilhelmsen has laid off half of its workers in the U.S and Mexico due to plummeting vehicle sales according to the Seatrade Maritime website
- BMW is furloughing its Spartenburg SC plant in the US for at least two weeks. The 11,000 workers will continue to be paid. No decision is yet to be made when it'll reopen says Bloomberg
- London City airport is suspending all flights until further notice says airlive.net. The airport attracts primarily business travellers owing to its proximity to the two financial centres of Canary Wharf and the city of London (which is not to be confused with Greater London) and the majority of finance workers are heeding the call to stay at home.
- Canadian supply chains holding up but it's volatile says Supplypro.ca. E-commerce is on the rise as non-essential businesses remain closed in Ontario and Quebec and the prime minister encourages Canadians to stay home. Amazon Inc., the country’s largest online retailer, said Tuesday it is hiring more than 1,000 workers in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta to handle the spike in direct-to-consumer sales. Business-to-business (B2B) deliveries are down, however, despite exceptions such as grocery store suppliers, said Marc Wulfraat, president of Montreal-based logistics consulting firm MWPVL International Inc.

Humour section

Coronavirus: Only half a store opens on Dutch/Belgian border - The Brussels Times reports that a clothing store which straddles the Dutch/Belgian country border is only half open (literally). Why - Belgium has closed all non essential stores but the Netherlands hasn't. The store has put up caution tape in the middle of the store to indicate the border. “I needed underwear, but that’s in the Belgian part of the store, so I could not get it,” a Dutch customer told VRT. (Bonus; click on the link and there's a video to back up the story).

Donations

Several asked if they can send me $/£/€ via Patreon (in some cases because I've saved them time or money, others for no reason at all). I don't need the cash (that's lovely though) but food bank charities are getting really hit hard with all this panic buying. Please consider giving whatever you'd have given me to a foodbank charity instead:
UK: https://www.trusselltrust.org/
France: https://www.banquealimentaire.org/
Germany: https://www.tafel.de/
Netherlands: https://www.voedselbankennederland.nl/steun-ons/steun-voedselbank-donatie/
Spain: https://www.fesbal.org/
Australia: https://www.foodbank.org.au/
Canada: https://www.foodbankscanada.ca/
USA: https://www.feedingamerica.org/
Thanks in advance for any donations you give. If there's foodbank charities in your country and it's not listed above, please suggest it and I will include it going forward.

mississippi gaming reopening video

GULFPORT, Miss. -- The Mississippi Gaming Commission said Thursday that casinos in the state can start reopening May 21 — more than two months after the commission closed them because of the ... Current Mississippi Gaming Property Industry Reopening Map 35 (100%) open properties, 0 (0%) closed properties The map gives the location of every property we have chronicled in Mississippi with icons showing which properties are currently open. The Mississippi Gaming Commission says all Coast casinos may reopen for business Wednesday at 1 p.m. following Monday’s emergency closure for Hurricane Sally. Mississippi casinos now have green light for reopening. Here are the details. Casinos in South Mississippi can start opening at 8 a.m. on Thursday, May 21, the Gaming Commission confirmed Thursday ... Mississippi gaming to reopen next week with new rules in response to COVID-19. Posted May 16, 2020 . Republican Gov. Tate Reeves responds to a reporter's question during his daily update on the ... Mississippi Gaming Commission provides guidelines on how casinos can reopen. ... they will be doing so following a set of strict reopening guidelines announced Friday by the Mississippi Gaming ... The Mississippi Gaming Commission sent a letter Friday to casinos around the state outlining its guidelines for reopening casinos during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reopening day is Thursday, May 21. The six-page letter goes into great detail covering hygiene, social distancing and occupancy limits. What Mississippi casinos are reopening? Here's the list. Most Mississippi casinos plan to reopen Thursday morning, after receiving the go-ahead from the state Gaming Commission last week.

mississippi gaming reopening top

Casino employee fears reopening amid coronavirus pandemic

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What Mississippi casinos are reopening? Here's the list.

mississippi gaming reopening

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[Health] - Mississippi gaming to reopen next week

Here is a Market Recap for today Friday, November 20, 2020. Please enjoy!

Here is a Market Recap for today Friday, November 20, 2020. Please enjoy!

Hurricane Delta

Hurricane Delta is currently a Category 3 hurricane and is expected to remain or near that strength at landfall.

COVID-19 Megathread #8

Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update October 27, 2020

WATCH LIVE @ 4:30PM: New Orleans Mayor Cantrell discusses New Orleans moving to Phase 2 on Sat. June 13th

Phase Two Overview

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

Additional Information from the 4:30 Press Conference

Q&A

[7/23/2020] Thursday's Off Topic Free Talk Thread

/LonghornNation Daily Off Topic Free Talk Thread

Today: 7/23/2020

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Your go-to place to talk about whatever you want. From the dumb shit aggies do on a near daily basis, to the latest whatever happening wherever. What ya got?

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Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update August 19, 2020

WATCH LIVE 2:30 PM - Governor John Bel Edwards COVID-19 Press Conference

LINKS TO WATCH

Summary

Questions

Closing Remarks

Covid-19 update 26th March

Virus statistics

In depth Virus news

Other virus news in brief (Source: Today's Guardian live blog unless otherwise sourced)

Supply chain specific news

Other supply chain stuff in brief

Humour section

Donations

mississippi gaming reopening video

mississippi gaming reopening top

Casino employee fears reopening amid coronavirus pandemic