 During his coronavirus briefing on Monday, Governor Andy Beshear announced his recommendation to use $400 million from the state's share of stimulus money coming next year to pay bonuses to essential workers. The governor gave few details about who would qualify for the bonuses, but he did mention healthcare workers, firefighters, EMTs, police, teachers, and grocery store workers who have worked throughout the pandemic as examples. This is the grocery store worker who has been stocking the shelves from March 6th of 2020, all the way through when these dollars would be available at about that time in 2022. It's all these healthcare heroes that we are seeing that have been sticking it out, that have been staying in these hospitals working hard, that we'd be able to look them in the eye and say, you deserve some of these ARPA dollars, stick it out, don't go with that traveling agency, make sure that you stay the course, help those in your community, and there will be a reward at the end. And I say reward, but this is more than earned. Our EMS and our firefighters and our police officers who couldn't take a day off in the midst of this. Our factory workers working for essential businesses. You all have toiled it out and I know you were scared, but you still showed up. Bashir said he is making the recommendation to the legislature, which will have the final say over whether the bonuses become a reality. The governor also noted that coronavirus numbers are continuing to fall in Kentucky, but the state's hospitals have seen very little relief so far. Now, we're on the right trajectory, which is a downward trajectory, but that doesn't mean that our hospitals aren't still overwhelmed. The relief that we hope will come from this downward movement has not hit our hospitals yet, because remember those cases take a little time for hospitalizations and then I see yous. Bashir said that as of Monday, 62 of the state's 96 hospitals continue to report critical staffing shortages.