Fayette County reports new COVID-19 death, bringing total to 7
Fayette County reported a new coronavirus-related death Monday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Fayette County to seven.
No demographic details — including the age of the victim — were released Monday. Out of the six other people who have died of the coronavirus, all of them have been older than 65.
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department said Monday there are 159 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness in Kentucky’s second-largest county, an increase of six people. As of Sunday, there were 955 people statewide with the virus and 45 coronavirus related deaths, according to Gov. Andy Beshear’s official total.
Around 20 percent of the cases in Lexington have required hospitalization — around 31 people — according to Kevin Hall, a spokesman for the Lexington Fayette-County Health Department. Around 73 people have recovered from the illness in Lexington.
After reporting double-digit increases in the number of new cases last week, the department has reported only single-digit increases over the past several days, including eight new cases on Sunday.
Fayette County Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kraig Humbaugh said during a Monday press conference it was too soon to tell if the number of new cases in Fayette County was starting to slow down.
“I think it is too early to tell, a couple of days don’t make a trend,” Humbaugh said. “We will be watching that. It seems that we are seeing some curves. We will see less numbers and then see some increases again. We are hopeful that the social distancing that everyone is doing is going to have an effect on flattening the curve.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 11:27 AM.
