Lexington hits 10,000 COVID-19 cases. Which populations have been affected most?
Lexington surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 cases with 82 newly reported cases Wednesday morning.
The first novel coronavirus case was confirmed in Lexington on March 8, and cases escalated in each of the six months that followed.
October is on track to be the first month in which new cases decrease, according to data from the Lexington Fayette-County Health Department. But Kentucky’s second-largest city still has a rate of spread that borders on “critical,” according to the state Department for Public Health.
The only county with more cases than Fayette is Jefferson with 19,842, according to state data. The next-closest to Fayette is Warren County, which has had 4,943 cases, according to state data.
Of the 10,076 Lexington residents who have contracted COVID-19, 91 have died, 616 have been hospitalized, and 8,833 have recovered, according to the Lexington health department.
COVID-19 has infected, hospitalized and killed racial and ethnic minorities at disproportionate rates, according to health department data. Black Lexington residents account for more than a quarter of all hospitalizations and deaths, but just 14.4 percent of the population is Black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Lexington’s Hispanic population has accounted for 20 percent of all cases despite making up just 7.4 percent of the city’s population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The coronavirus pandemic has also more severely affected older populations. About 90 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the city have been residents 55 or older. About 63 percent of all hospitalizations have occurred in that same age range.
While older Lexington residents have dealt with the worst of the pandemic thus far, younger populations have been contracting the virus much more frequently. About 60 percent of all of Lexington’s cases have been in residents aged 34 or younger, according to data from the Lexington health department. College students have accounted for almost a quarter of all the city’s cases.
As of Tuesday, Lexington has reported an average of 73.9 cases per day for October. The city’s rolling seven-day average for new cases was 79.7 as of Tuesday. The rolling average previously eclipsed 100 in mid-September.