Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/tag/coronavirus/)
With incomplete city data showing more than half of Metro government employees are vaccinated and incentives to share that information proving ineffective, the city intends to start requiring employees to share their status.
Although the state has oversight of local jails, state officials have been reluctant to wield it during the pandemic.
Incarceration today means frequent lockdowns and isolation, costly fees to stay in touch and fewer people in programs that would reduce time behind bars.
The most recent federal coronavirus relief package finally grants states that option, but it will have no effect in Kentucky. That’s because debt forgiveness still isn’t allowed under state law.
Since Kentucky’s first COVID-19 patient was confirmed nearly a month ago, cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus have continued to increase in the state. Along with that increase in cases comes an increase in questions:
How many cases are there around me? How many people in my community have died? How do other health issues increase the risk of serious illness due to coronavirus in my community? These questions are hard to answer right now due to the speed at which data are being reported.
People in rural areas are typically sicker, older and have less access to regular healthcare than other communities.
As some Republican legislators are unsatisfied with the program’s results and call for it to be defunded, the program’s director says it’s still saving lives.
The federal government set aside $7 billion in 2009 to modernize the nation’s unemployment systems. Kentucky left its portion on the table.
The shrinking economic safety net and politics of the moment complicate an otherwise straightforward public health decision.
Gov. Andy Beshear acknowledged that Kentucky mistakenly overpaid people who requested unemployment benefits — and advised recipients to save that money.