FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky has again extended its contract with an outside company hired to help work through a backlog of unemployment claims amid the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday.
The contract with Ernst & Young will be prolonged through the end of 2020, the governor announced. The company has helped the state process more than 141,000 claims since the partnership began nine weeks ago, he said.
The governor also announced more than 800 new confirmed coronavirus cases statewide and 15 more virus-related deaths. Kentucky is coming off its highest number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in a single week, with more than 4,500 reported last week.
Like other states, Kentucky has struggled to keep up with massive numbers of unemployment claims since March as the pandemic battered the economy.
As a result, Beshear’s administration said Tuesday that it was extending the state’s contract with Ernst & Young for a second time to continue whittling away at the backlog of cases.
The latest extension will cost about $4.9 million, said Amy Cubbage, the state’s deputy labor secretary. The original contract and the first extension cost nearly $12 million combined, she said. The state is using federal coronavirus relief funds to pay for the outside services.
The partnership is expected to help the state process about 70,000 more disputed jobless claims in coming months while not falling behind on new requests for assistance, the governor said.
“We focus a lot about what’s coming out of the bucket and not realizing that there’s so much still coming in,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we get through these claims without creating a new backlog by not having the resources for the several thousand claims that come in every day.”
The plight of some Kentuckians left in limbo while seeking unemployment benefits became a political headache for the Democratic governor, who drew criticism from Republican lawmakers.
Beshear has said he takes responsibility for the state’s response but has noted that the state’s unemployment system endured years of budget cuts before he became governor.
Meanwhile, the governor reported 807 new confirmed coronavirus cases Tuesday, raising the statewide total to more than 49,180 confirmed cases since the pandemic began. The newest cases included 150 Kentucky youngsters ages 18 and younger, which Beshear called a “growing concern.”
“A larger portion, it seems like every week, of the total are 18 and under,” he said. “We think that’s two things - our younger Kentuckians are getting out more … and then they’re getting tested more. But the virus is certainly spreading more in and through our kids.”
The 15 latest virus-related deaths raised the state’s death toll to 948. Beshear has braced the state for the potential for higher numbers of deaths due to increased case numbers in recent weeks.
“It’s a large number,” the governor said of the 15 deaths. “And we’ve known that we’re going to see these numbers. And we’re going to continue to see numbers like this.”
One continuing good sign was that Kentucky’s positivity rate - a rolling figure reflecting the average number of tests coming back positive for COVID-19 - stayed below 5%, at 4.4%.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some - especially older adults and people with existing health problems - it can cause more severe illness and be fatal.
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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
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