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Nearly 90 deaths from COVID-19 were reported in Kentucky over the last three days

Deaths in Kentucky, including many under the age of 50, are surging because of the rampaging delta variant of COVID-10, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday.

In his weekly update of the coronavirus pandemic in Kentucky, Beshear said a total of 8,339 Kentuckians have died from the virus, with 88 new deaths reported from Saturday to Monday.

He read some of the ages of the dead, including several in their 20s.

“It’s just tragic,” said the governor, stressing that the solution is vaccination. He said most of the deaths are among unvaccinated people. He also expressed optimism that more booster shots will be coming to help curb the number of so-called breakthrough infections.

Reuters reported Monday that U.S. regulators could authorize a booster shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for those 65 or older and some high-risk Americans early this week, in time for the government to roll them out by Friday.

Beshear said the state’s positivity rate for COVID-19 has dipped to 12.18 percent, though he warned that number “is still far too high.”

He also said there was “some leveling off” of hospital patients with COVID-19 even though last week was the third-highest week during the pandemic. The number of patients in intensive care dipped a bit but it’s too early to say if that is a trend, he said.

“We hope that it’s a trend or a plateau but we can’t sustain a plateau at that level,” the governor said.

Beshear noted that 21 children are in the hospital with the virus, with seven in intensive care.

Beshear said 77 percent — or 74 of 96 — hospitals in the state were experiencing critical staff shortages on Saturday, but that dropped to 63 hospitals Monday. “That is still over two-thirds of our hospitals reporting that shortage.”

The Democratic governor also expressed concern about the availability of monoclonal antibody treatments, saying there were more than 5,000 such treatments given at 79 sites in Kentucky last week and there is supply from the federal government for about 4,960 this week.

“It’s going to go down from there,” he said.

Sites will have until Monday of each week to request the treatments and the state will have to ration them out.

The state will start publishing next week where the treatments are available.

Kentuckians should focus more on getting vaccinated than relying on antibody treatments, he said.

Beshear, in response to a question, also said the legislature has not presented to him a plan to provide more financial resources to hospital and nursing staff, nor have they identified where that money would come from. Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, suggested last week a one-day special legislative session for that purpose.

In a matter not related to COVID-19, Beshear announced that state police and federal security partners have recommended closing to traffic the road between the Capitol and Capitol Annex. He said legislative leaders have been briefed.