In Gov. Beshear’s daily update on Sunday, he announced an exponential increase in available testing.

The Kroger Company is now partnering with the Commonwealth of Kentucky and will be testing 20,000 people statewide in the coming five weeks. Medical staff and personal protective equipment (PPE) provided by Kroger. Kroger will be providing Kentuckians with tests alongside Gravity Diagnostics.

Drive-thru testing at Kroger will start tomorrow in Frankfort from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 250 people will be able to get tested daily for COVID-19.

‘Priority 1 and 2’ groups, labeled by the CDC, are going to be the first to be tested.

These groups include:

• Healthcare workers

• First responders

• People 65 years or older

• People who have a chronic health condition

There is a 48-hour turnaround for the tests administered by Kroger, meaning that it will take 48 hours for a result to come back after the test has been received by the laboratory.

The company worked with Microsoft in developing a ‘health bot’ to make registration easier on those who need to get tested.

This digital registration process is the first of its kind in Kentucky.

Anyone who believes they may have come in contact with a person(s) with COVID-19 can register to get tested at krogerhealth.com/covidtesting.

“Good news on a day that declares the good news,” Beshear said regarding the new testing centers.

Beshear mentioned new statistics regarding the positive cases in Kentucky hospitals.

• 667 of all coronavirus positive patients have been hospitalized

• 289 are currently hospitalized

• 256 of all were ever in the ICU

• 136 are currently in the ICU

• At least 607 people have recovered 

As of Sunday, Kentucky holds 1,963 total cases out of the national 557,488 cases. 97 deaths have been reported in the state and 25,866 people have been tested for the virus.

In the update, Beshear mentioned the racial disparities regarding access to healthcare around the Commonwealth. 

The percentages he read off shows that African American communities are becoming disproportionately affected by the coronavirus compared to Caucasian populations in the state.

Out of the thousands of churches present in Kentucky, less than seven planned on holding services on Easter Sunday.

Maryville Baptist Church was one of the seven.

Located in Hillview, Kentucky, a small town on the outskirts of Louisville, the church held an Easter service on Sunday. Two residents of New Jersey, a state that may be considered the new epicenter of the raging pandemic, attended the service.

Beshear pleaded for anyone who attended these mass gatherings to self-quarantine themselves.

Beshear said we have to make sacrifices to protect ourselves and those around us.

“Our test of humanity was never going to be easy,” he said.

Steven Stacker, Kentucky’s public health commissioner and emergency medicine physician said that our choices during this pandemic have real effects.

“I am here to make this as real as I can, the choices and decisions you make have direct implications for others,” Stacker said.

The Governor and his family have all had to make sacrifices this Easter, he said, one of them was that his son, Will, had to postpone his baptism that was scheduled for Sunday.

News reporter Cassady Lamb can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @lambp0p.