Reopening the Economy in Kentucky

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF FORT WRIGHT, KENTUCKY DECLARING  THE NEED TO END THE QUARANTINE AND TO SAFELY AND QUICKLY REOPEN THE ECONOMY IN KENTUCKY IMMEDIATELY

SECTION I

WHEREAS, the Novel Corona Virus, scientifically called SARS-CoV-2; but generally  referred to  as COVID-19 or the Wuhan Virus was originally modeled by the Imperial College of London England's Scientific  Advisory  Group to result in the deaths of 2 Million American  citizens and over 62,000 deaths  in Kentucky, and The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at Washington University commonly referred to as IMHE modeled that our healthcare system would be overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases such that by the second week of April 2020, our healthcare system would have been unable to provide ventilators or ICU beds to the  stricken;

WHEREAS, acting upon good faith in these estimates, it made sense to enact stringent requirements on businesses and to persuade people to maintain social distancing and to use other precautions to avoid serious  personal  risks in order to "Flatten the Curve" and prevent  overwhelming  our ability  to adequately treat patients;

WHEREAS, as of today, May, 6 2020, with 5,822 known infection cases and 288 deaths in the Commonwealth of Kentucky out of a population of 4,470,000 and 628 known infection cases and 40 deaths in the eight county area of Northern Kentucky out of a population of 400,000 as published by the Northern Kentucky Health Department;

WHEREAS, as of today, May 6, 2020 the Commonwealth of Kentucky has 75  ICU  beds devoted to COVID-19 victims with an availability of an additional 449 and that confirmed infection rates and deaths per day have peaked or have declined while testing is increasing markedly by the day according  to   https://covid19.healthdata. org/united-states-of-america/kentucky;

WHEREAS, evidence is increasingly showing that older people and others with underlying conditions are more likely to have a serious illness requiring hospitalization and are also more likely to die from COVID-19 . With this understanding, it is a commonsense and achievable goal  to target isolation to that group, including strictly monitoring those who interact with them rather than to  quarantine healthy  people who want and need to  work;

WHEREAS, over 600,000 unemployment claims have been filed in Kentucky in the past six weeks, roughly 25% of the state's entire workforce. A report recently released by the Kentucky budget director on the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2020 shows a potential General Fund revenue shortfall of $318.7 million to $495.7 million, the first annual decline in the General Fund since FY 2010.