Kentucky shatters weekly record for coronavirus deaths with a day to spare. 84 dead.
Since Sunday there have been 6,951 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky, 1,457 of which were new on Friday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced. Sixteen more people with the virus have died, pushing the death toll to 1,396.
Though the week isn’t over, Kentucky has already surpassed its previous weekly record for the number of announced deaths; so far this week there are 84, compared with the previous record week of 72 between Aug. 30 and Sept. 5.
In a written update, Beshear called the need for more Kentuckians to wear masks “crucial,” noting that this week brought three out of the top five single-day records for new cases reported. The state has now logged a total of 93,748 coronavirus infections.
“This virus is everywhere. It is in your community. We need every community doing what it takes to defeat it,” he said.
There are a record 819 people hospitalized with the virus, 19 more than Thursday. Of those, 205 are in intensive care, nine fewer than the day before, and 97 people are on ventilators, down from 105. The positivity rate, which continues to inch up, is at 5.34 percent.
Forty-eight of Kentucky’s 120 counties remain in the “red zone” with at least 25 cases per 100,000 people, and all but 10 of the remaining counties are in the “orange zone,” where spread is considered accelerated.
The state Department for Public Health reported 301 new college and university student cases. The state has confirmed 499 new student and eight staff cases in the last 14 days.
In K-12 schools, the state’s dashboard reported 82 additional student and 39 staff cases as of Thursday evening. Over the last two weeks, 836 students and 438 staff have tested positive.
In nursing homes, 35 more residents and 73 additional nursing home staff have tested positive, bringing the total number of infections in those facilities to 1,508.
Of Friday’s new cases, 112 were in Fayette County, according to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department. After a brief plateau, cases are again trending upward in Lexington, where, by week’s end, the seven-day case total is expected to exceed last week’s.
Beshear and his family will leave quarantine in the governor’s mansion on Saturday. Since they were exposed to a member of their security detail who later tested positive, the governor and his family have tested negative four times.
Beshear chalked up the negative diagnoses to the fact that he and his security guard both wore masks while riding in the same car. Beshear was sitting in the passenger seat while his security guard with COVID-19 was driving.
“I was wearing a mask. He was wearing a mask,” he said. “That shows you that it works.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 5:17 PM.
