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KENTUCKY TODAY

The weekly COVID-19 report issued Monday by the Kentucky Department for Public Health is one of the most positive ones in several weeks, showing drops in new cases, deaths, and the state’s positivity rate.

A total of 14,654 new cases were reported to the state for the seven-day period ending Sunday.  That was a decrease of 1,230 cases from the previous week and breaks a long string of weeks that had ever-increasing new case reports.  There have now been 1,471,195 confirmed cases of COVID in Kentucky since the first one was reported in March 2020. 

35 counties reported over 100, which was more than double last week’s total of 15; and 12 counties topped the 200 new case mark.  Jefferson had 2,173, Fayette 860, Hardin 450, Warren 433, Kenton 316, Daviess 281, Madison 273, Boone 272, Pike 241, Laurel 225, Bullitt 222, and Boyd 206.

There were 45 new deaths in this latest report, down from 59 last week and 49 the week before.  This brings the number of deaths in Kentucky attributed to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic to 16,397.

The current statewide positivity rate is 17.89%, compared with 19.11% last week, a drop of 1.22%, while the statewide seven-day incidence rate is 40.52 per 100,000 persons, compared with 42.88 last week, which is 2.36 lower.

Susan Dunlap, a spokesperson for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, of which the Department for Public Health is a part, had this explanation:

“It is possible that the downward trend this week is due to disruptions in testing and reporting caused by the floods in eastern Kentucky.  We should know more next week about the statewide trends.”

The current hospital census showed a slight increase this week.  There were 602 Kentuckians hospitalized this week.  Of them, 89 were in intensive care units and 33 on a ventilator.  That compares to 598 in the hospital last week, with 84 in the ICU and the same number on a ventilator.

In the weekly COVID Community Level map released last Friday, 40, or one third of Kentucky’s 120 counties were in the yellow zone, meaning a medium level, while the remaining 80 counties, or two thirds, were red, which indicates a high level of COVID.  There were no counties in the green, which represents a low community level.

For more details and guidance, go to the state’s COVID-19 website, http://kycovid19.ky.gov/.