Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is calling on everyone to get vaccinated and to talk to friends and loved ones about getting the COVID-19 shot, too. He spoke before the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce's Government Forum Wednesday morning in Covington.
"By the end of this week we'll have more people in the hospital battling COVID than at anytime during this pandemic," he told the gathering of business and civic leaders. "And, I believe, within a week-and-a-half to two weeks every hospital bed we can staff is going to be full. That ought to make us all worried, not just those that are concerned about COVID but those that are worried about folks that are in car wrecks or have heart attacks."
He also asked everyone to wear masks to reduce the spread of the highly contagious virus. Earlier this month he issued an executive order mandating all people inside public and private schools be masked. He called the move necessary to protect children and their education, and it's important for the economy, too.
"If we have kids that are quarantined - hundreds, thousands - those are hundreds and thousands of people that can't go to work that day. Those are businesses that are left scrambling," Beshear said.
The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.
Brent Spence Bridge
Beshear also addressed Kentucky's economy and the perennial question of building another Brent Spence Bridge. He referenced money targeting roads and bridges in the federal infrastructure bill, saying he's called every contact he has to ensure the project gets funding.
"As much as I tried, they did not write the words into the bill," he said. "But what they have created is a grant program for major needed projects that I'm assured that this falls within - if it is not the number one project that was considered in putting that together."
