With 1,032 new cases, Kentucky’s COVID-19 surge gets ‘more and more dangerous’
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 1,032 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Monday, continuing the state’s serious escalation and lifting the case total to 109,670.
The latest daily increase of cases is the most ever reported on a Monday. Five of the last seven days have brought record-setting numbers of new cases.
“This is getting increasingly more and more dangerous,” Beshear said in a virtual news conference Monday.
Beshear also announced three more deaths, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,492. Monday’s deaths included a 59-year-old man who was a health care worker in Whitley County.
Last week was the most infectious seven-day stretch in Kentucky so far, when close to 11,700 new cases were reported. That’s roughly 2,300 more than the previous seven-day record the week before. The positivity rate also continues to inch back up, settling at 6.25 percent on Monday — the highest since June 1.
“That is a huge and significant jump,” Beshear said. “What it says is we have to do better, and we have to take action. Folks in America and in Kentucky, this is getting increasingly more and more dangerous.”
Warnings from state officials about the accelerated spread of the coronavirus are only becoming more dire, especially as more sick patients are filling Kentucky’s hospitals. On Monday, more than 988 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Kentucky and 270 were in intensive care — 20 more people than on Sunday. Of those, 142 were on a ventilator
Nationwide, new infections soared last week. States logged more than half a million new cases, and Friday alone brought close to 99,000 new cases. That breaks down to a new case every 1.2 seconds and a death every 1 minute, 47 seconds, Beshear said, calling that rate of surge “absolutely staggering.”
In Kentucky nursing homes, where the virus continues to spread, 57 additional residents and 39 nursing home staff are newly positive, bringing the total number of active cases in those facilities to 1,750.
In “red zone,” counties, where spread is at a critical level, Beshear has advised nursing homes to temporarily halt all visitation of residents by friends and family to reduce the chance for further spread.
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 5:01 PM.
