Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed a mask directive that took effect on Tuesday, requiring all schools across the state to require all faculty, staff and students to wear masks.
Under the new regulations, anyone in a Kentucky nursery or school (including preschool) must wear a mask, regardless of their vaccination status.
break in: @GovAndyBeshear An executive order will be signed today requiring everyone in nurseries, preschools and K-12 schools to wear masks.
“We have reached the point where we cannot allow our children to enter these buildings and face this delta variant without protection and vaccinations.”
-Ben Tobin (@Ben__Tobin) August 10, 2021
“This is our way of ensuring that we protect our children, but it’s also our way of ensuring that they stay in school,” Bashir said on Tuesday afternoon.
according to Messenger magazine, Dozens of school districts in Kentucky are scheduled to start on Wednesday morning, so the mandatory requirement for masks came at the right time.
Beshear also emphasized that Kentucky is in one of the regions with the fastest surge in COVID-19 cases. On Monday, he announced 1,301 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 500,267.
As all states across the country are ravaged by the new Delta variant, the number of children—especially those who cannot be vaccinated—has been hospitalized.
Beshear said that COVID-19 is “attacking children in ways we have never seen before.”
Only last week, the Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville found that the number of children admitted to hospital has increased. On Tuesday, the hospital recorded 10 pediatric patients with COVID-19, of which 4 were in the intensive care unit and 2 were on ventilators.
“The vast majority of patients requiring hospitalization are unvaccinated patients,” said Charlotte Ipsan, the Chief Administrative Office of Norton Women’s and Children’s Hospital. “We continue to emphasize that vaccination is still our top priority in fighting hospitalization and the COVID-19 incidence.”
“Children are not immortal,” said Dr. Scottie Day, chief physician at Kentucky Children’s Hospital. “It should be rare for children to go to the hospital.”
according to Express MagazineSeveral school districts ignored the governor’s request for all school districts to wear masks, hoping to leave the decision to parents of students.
“I will have the courage to do what I think is the right thing to protect our children,” Bashir said on Tuesday.
Before the governor’s announcement, multiple school districts had already performed their tasks. In Warren County, less than a week before the start of the school year, after approximately 700 students and faculty entered the quarantine area, Superintendent Rob Clayton announced Monday night that he would need to wear masks.
Bashir said on Tuesday that “without intervention,” Kentucky is expected to see the largest number of hospitalizations in the entire pandemic within two weeks. Express Magazine.
“We are in a worrying place,” Bashir said.
Weekly newspaper Contacted the Kentucky Department of Public Health for more comments, but did not receive a timely response.
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