Updated: Lexington reports 102 new COVID-19 cases. Beshear calls UK ‘a real concern.’
Lexington reported 102 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, including 37 new infections among University of Kentucky students.
As concerns mount among the governor and others over UK’s coronavirus cases, a university spokesman said the campus is in good shape on several measures it’s tracking to evaluate the safety of in-person classes.
The 102 new cases are the fifth-most in a single day for Lexington, and the figure increases the city’s total case count since March to 5,289. There was one new death Thursday, increasing the total fatalities to 54.
Thursday is the first day since Aug. 14 that cases have surpassed 100. The city’s total cases have now increased by 2,034 in August. It’s the first time the city has recorded 2,000 cases in a single month.
New city cases had declined for three consecutive days before Thursday’s report, according to data from the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department. The overall decreases came despite the climb in UK cases.
The local health department, which has the most up to date figures, has reported 423 cases among University of Kentucky students since students started getting tested by UK on Aug. 3. Fayette County includes students who are isolating in the county in its results. If students quarantine outside of Fayette County, those cases are included in other health department numbers.
In total, the local health department has reported 544 cases among UK students since March.
“That is a lot of cases,” Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday. “I would like to hear from the university, at what point do things become such a high level that you consider making major changes?”
Beshear added that UK’s cases were “a real concern.”
“We will continue – as we have throughout this process – to work closely with the governor’s office and the Department of Public Health to provide information they request about what we are doing to ensure the health, safety and well-being of our campus community,” UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said Thursday.
A combination of several factors would push the university toward consideration of closing or making major changes around campus, Blanton said. Those factors include access to personal protection equipment; the on-campus impact on hospital beds, quarantine and isolation space; and UK’s ability to complete screenings and contact tracing.
“We currently are in a good space along all of those measures,” Blanton said.
Last week, the university completed its initial testing phase to screen all students who planned to be on campus. The university releases test data on a web page, but results lag behind the health department’s figures. The latest available test results through Aug. 22 showed 249 positives out of 22,470 students tested with a positivity rate of 1.1 percent. Those results do not include students who have been tested outside of the university’s mandated testing.
Employees can also do voluntary testing. About 1,000 have been tested, Blanton said, and less than half a percent have come back positive.
Starting Sunday, the university entered its second screening phase, re-testing about 5,500 fraternity and sorority students after their initial test results registered higher positivity rates than the general student population. Those results are yet to be made public.
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 9:13 AM.