Two more Ky. deaths from covid-19, first day with more than one; Trump invokes Defense Production Act to get more ventilators - Health News

Ideas by Jason and Brooke Ison and @tizbitz, design by @SinclairArt for KyforKy.com

As news develops in Kentucky about the coronavirus and its covid-19 disease, this item will be updated. Official state guidance is at https://kycovid19.ky.gov.

• Gov. Andy Beshear announced two more deaths in Kentucky from covid-19, marking the first time two have been reported in one day. He said it would happen again, and more than once.
• Invoking the Defense Production Act for the first time, President Trump ordered General Motors to start producing ventilators, which hospitals say are in short supply with the number of severe covid-19 cases increasing.
• Trump named a national coordinator for production of health-care equipment, Peter Navarro, who said at Trump's daily press conference, "We are engaged in the most serious industrial mobilization since World War II."
• The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting gives details on the amount of personal protective equipment the federal government has shipped to Kentucky, and says "It's not enough."
• Appalachian Regional Healthcare, the largest hospital chain in Eastern Kentucky, said it would lay off about 500 employees after a 30 percent decrease in business following the ban on "non-urgent, in-person" medical procedures.
• Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who was elected on an anti-abortion platform, asked Beshear's Cabinet for Health and Family Services to temporarily ban abortion under the governor's order. Fellow Republicans in the legislature are moving a bill that would allow Cameron to do that, but they would have to take unusual steps to get it passed before the legislative session ends.
• Public art displays in Louisville, the city most pivotal in his narrow election victory in November, support Beshear, the Courier Journal reports.
• The University of Kentucky said six UK HealthCare workers, one other employee and two students have tested positive for the coronavirus.

from KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS https://ift.tt/2wHfHqf - Health News