While Kentucky-run health facilities and other state buildings now have universal mask requirements, Beshear has not yet decided to take the next step and make it mandatory in other public settings. Heâs also not contemplating a vaccine-or-required-test mandate for state employees, a step other states and the U.S. government have implemented recently. Still, Beshear has called on some organizations, including school districts, to implement mask mandates as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have now recommended. Beshear was flabbergasted after he learned Carter County Schools announced earlier Monday it still would not require masks even after officials in the eastern Kentucky county delayed the start of its school year from this Thursday to Aug. 16 because of an increase in COVID-19 cases among students.Â