Lexington reports new 1-day record for COVID-19 cases. Total since March passes 12,000
Lexington reported 181 new COVID-19 cases Friday morning, setting a new record for the most coronavirus cases the city has had in a day.
Lexington’s total count surpassed 12,000, reaching 12,005. The city has also had 101 total deaths and 712 hospitalizations from COVID-19. The record number of new local cases are from the same day in which Kentucky reported a new state record: 2,318. The county health department reports numbers for the previous day Monday through Saturday.
Among Friday’s new COVID-19 cases were 37 new cases among University of Kentucky students. That increase was one of the largest among UK students over the last several weeks. New cases on campus increased over the past week after repeatedly decreasing for over a month.
“That development is not surprising, given the surge in numbers in the state over the last several weeks,” UK spokesman Jay Blanton said. “We are closely monitoring those numbers – on our campus and in the broader community.”
UK was confident that measures like wastewater testing, daily screening, “robust” contact tracing, wellness support for students and expanded flu vaccinations would help UK keep the virus under control on campus, Blanton said.
Two of Lexington’s highest single-day increases in COVID-19 cases have come in the first five days of November, according to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department.
Compliance on red zone recommendations is “hard to track”
Fayette County was one of about 80 Kentucky counties in the state’s “red zone” for COVID-19 spread Thursday. The state’s red zone classification comes with Gov. Andy Beshear’s recommendations to cut down on outings, gatherings and employees in workplaces. The guidance is intended to help slow the coronavirus’ spread.
If a county is in the red zone on Thursday evening, those recommendations are intended to be followed the next week. But the guidelines aren’t mandates, and Beshear said Thursday it’s not easy to keep a record of how well counties are doing at following the advice.
“We’re doing more than hoping for the best, but again, with the volume, it’s hard to track,” Beshear said. “The way we mainly do it is through our local health departments.”
But it’s not easy for local health departments to keep tabs on compliance either, according to the Lexington health department.
“A large part of that is what people are doing in their personal lives, and we can’t enforce it, only suggest following guidelines,” health department spokesman Kevin Hall said.
Lexington’s incidence rate swelled to 49.1 as of Thursday, which is almost twice as high as the number required for a county to be in the red zone. The incidence rate is used by the state health department to classify the rate of COVID-19 spread.
The state calculates the incidence rate by taking the total number of new cases in each county over the past seven days. That number is divided by seven to get a daily average and then divided by the U.S. Census Bureau’s population figure for the county. That number is multiplied by 100,000 to get the incidence per 100,000 people, according to the state health department.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 9:45 AM.