FRANKFORT, Ky. — With Kentucky hospitals laying off hundreds of employees, losing a reported $20 million or more daily and COVID-19 hospitalizations lower than first predicted, Majority Floor Leader Senator Damon Thayer wants Governor Andy Beshear to allow elective surgeries.
The Georgetown Republican said he thinks it is possible for people to be both concerned about the effect on public health and the economy due to coronavirus.
“I think it is the responsible step to take to encourage leaders to start looking at plans to do a gradual re-engagement,” said Sen. Thayer. “I’m not talking about going back to normal tomorrow or even next week, but I think that people want to have hope and the best person to deliver that message right now is the guy that’s on TV every night at 5 o’clock and that is our governor.”
Minority Leader Senator Morgan McGarvey thinks it’s too soon.
“The hospitals in my district are not pushing for this to happen,” Sen. McGarvey said. “They are focusing on keeping people safe and keeping them protected in the time of coronavirus. So as Kentucky heads towards the peak with COVID-19, I think that's the focus of our hospitals and then we'll look at elective surgeries.”
Sen. McGarvey said some of his area hospitals do not have enough PPE to feel comfortable with the coronavirus response, much less taking on the elective surgeries again. They’ve told him that once coronavirus numbers begin to decline, and PPE increases, they would be willing to tackle those elective procedures again.
“I think that people are pretty happy with Governor Beshear's leadership on the health and safety.” added Sen. Thayer, “but I think they'd like to see him multitask and start talking about a plan to stage us back to normalcy.”
We reached out to the Governor's office for comment, but they have yet to respond. They typically react to these types of comments in the Governor's 5 o'clock news conference. If we hear from him, we'll update this story.
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