Some areas in rural KY seeing coronavirus spike. Reasons include church, complacency.
Some rural areas in Kentucky that hadn’t had many COVID-19 cases have seen an increase recently tied at least in part to the reopening of churches and businesses.
Harlan County, in south-eastern Kentucky, had only one confirmed case of the disease before May 30, but has had 13 since then, said Judge-Executive Dan Mosley.
Dozens more people have potentially been exposed to the novel coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 infection. There are more than 100 people in the county under quarantine for 14 days while health officials monitor them to see if they develop the disease, Mosley said.
The quarantine cases include several youth interns with the Club 180 Ministry in Cumberland, Mosley said.
The organization put out a call for donated meals, saying someone associated with the ministry had been exposed to the virus while traveling, making quarantine necessary for a total of 14 staff and interns.
Officials said increased testing in rural areas helped explain the increase, but Mosley and others said they’re concerned that as the state reopens after weeks of shutdowns to stem the spread of the coronavirus, many people aren’t following the recommended social-distancing measures to keep down exposures.
Those include wearing a mask, keeping six feet away from people and frequent hand-washing.
“There are a lot less people wearing masks today than there were two months ago” in the county, Mosley said. “We saw no problems until the grand reopening.”
Some counties still have few cases compared to other spots in Kentucky, but the upward trend has officials worried that coronavirus is spreading in the community.
There was a “significant spike” of 21 cases in Clay, Jackson and Rockcastle counties over the weekend, the Cumberland Valley District Health Department announced Monday.
Clay County had only six confirmed coronavirus cases as of May 28, but added seven confirmed cases and one probable case over the weekend, according to news releases.
Several cases in Clay County were tied to a church, and two churches in Jackson County may turn out to have clusters as well, said Christie Green, public health director for the department.
The health department asked that anyone who attended Solid Rock Church, which is at Burning Springs in Clay County, between May 28 and June 3 to call the local health department if they hadn’t already been contacted.
Of the 12 new cases confirmed in Jackson County over the weekend, 11 were associated with churches, and more potential exposures are likely to turn up as health officials continue tracing people’s contacts, Green said.
On Tuesday, the health department reported six more new cases in Jackson County and one in Rockcastle County associated with an “outbreak” among the congregation of Big Hill Holiness Church in Jackson County.
An employee at the main Jackson County Bank office in McKee also tested positive, according to the health department.
The bank conducted a thorough cleaning. Employees from other branches are working at the main office while the affected employee and others potentially exposed are in quarantine, the health department said.
The health department said the risk that customers were exposed is low.
Green said some new cases in Clay County were associated with a golf course.
“I definitely think reopening is a piece of this,” Green said of the increase in cases. “We in the small towns are not immune.”
Green said some of the churches tied to COVID-19 cases in the district had not been doing enough to practice social distancing.
“It really is crucial at this point for churches to engage in some due diligence when it comes to being careful,” she said.
The recommendation to stay six feet away from people assumes not being in an enclosed space for an extended time, said Shawn Crabtree, head of the 10-county Lake Cumberland District Health Department, based in Somerset.
That’s not the case in church, where people are inside together for services that typically last an hour or more.
The 6-foot rule also applies to normal breathing, so it’s not enough when people are singing and potentially blowing virus particles further, Crabtree said.
Crabtree said the district had four new COVID-19 cases recently tied to churches.
The health department said that between June 7 and June 14, there had been a number of cases of people who unknowingly had COVID-19 going to church, resulting in exposure and quarantine for “scores” of others.
“Church continues to be a difficult environment due to several people being in close contact for an extended period,” the department said in a release.
Crabtree said that increased testing does not account for all the increase in cases. There were few positive cases among people who went through mass-testing sites in the district, he said; most of the new positives are people who are sick.
Scott Lockard, public health director of the Kentucky River District Health Department, said there was a “huge influx” of cases in the district over the weekend. The district covers seven counties in the Hazard area.
Mountain Comprehensive Care has expanded testing in the area, Lockard said, but like officials elsewhere, he also attributed the increase to the loosening of lockdowns.
“I think we’re just seeing a lot more contact,” Lockard said.
There were 62 cases in the district as of Monday, with 36 of those in Perry County and 12 in Letcher County.
A number of cases were tied to a Holiness church, said Lockard, who cautioned against congregational signing.
Churches were tied to spikes in coronavirus cases earlier in the pandemic before Gov. Andy Beshear barred in-person services for two months. He lifted that restriction as of May 20, though a court case allowed in-person services to resume May 10.
Beshear allowed retail businesses and restaurants to resume inside services, with capacity limits, just before Memorial Day.
Several local officials said they see a number of factors in people not following social-distancing practices, including complacency brought on by the relative lack of cases until recently, and fatigue with having to stay on guard.
The increase in cases in some areas — and along with that the potential for more sickness and death — should remind people of the need to be careful, officials said.
There has been concern around the country about a second wave of the disease, but some spots in Kentucky aren’t through the first wave, Lockard said.
“We’re still very much in the middle of the first peak,” he said. “If we can adhere to the (social distancing) practices, we’re gonna get through this quicker and with fewer deaths.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 10:37 AM with the headline "Some areas in rural KY seeing coronavirus spike. Reasons include church, complacency.."
