5/1/2020- Beshear expands SNAP program

In his evening press conference last night, Governor Andy Beshear announced that there are now 4,708 cases of COVID-19 in the Commonwealth. Of these cases, 174 were newly confirmed. It is believed that 1,675 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus, however there were five new deaths reported on Thursday, bringing the state’s total to 240. Governor Beshear made the announcement that recipients of the SNAP program, which is food benefits, will be able to use those benefits online, including for delivery orders. This is in partnership with Wal-Mart and Amazon. There are over 500,000 people in the Commonwealth on SNAP, and the Governor says he wanted to make sure they could take advantage of this in their communities. In addition, Doctor Steven Stack announced that Kentucky hospitals will be using the Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System, which uses vapor phase hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate N95 respirator masks for up to 20 reuses without degrading filter performance.