Kentucky demolishes its COVID-19 death record with 54 new deaths. 3,349 new cases.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 54 more deaths from COVID-19 in Kentucky on Thursday, setting a single-day record that is 17 more than the previous high of 37 and raising the death toll to 2,316.
“This is by far the most people we’ve lost. Remember, that’s a reflection of where this virus was about three weeks ago,” he said.
Beshear said there were 3,349 new cases of COVID-19, increasing the statewide case total to 234,021 as the state readies to receive more coronavirus vaccine doses next week.
Despite the record number of deaths and high number of cases, Beshear credited the restrictions he put in place early last month as helping to blunt the potential for a Thanksgiving spike.
“We believe, based on what we’re seeing in other states, that our actions taken before Thanksgiving blunted the impact it could have had,” the governor said.
Overall, the state’s infection curve is holding steady in its plateau. “Despite the nation escalating dangerously, we have seen a stability in new cases and a decrease in test positivity,” Beshear said, quoting from the White House’s weekly report. “That means we are doing better while the rest of the nation is doing worse.”
The rate of Kentuckians testing positive remained relatively flat on Thursday at 8.45 percent — the lowest rate since November 12.
Despite that stability, a record 1,817 people are currently hospitalized with the virus (24 more than Wednesday), including 431 in intensive care (29 fewer) and 239 on ventilators (15 more).
Beshear said Kentucky will get 27,300 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine during the week of Christmas, roughly 11,000 fewer doses than the state expected.
“This is lower than we expected based on the first allocation,” he said. The state received just over 38,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in its first shipment earlier this week, and so far, at least 1,454 of those doses have been administered. Beshear said previously that his goal was to immunize all of Kentucky’s long-term care population by March 1. Getting fewer than expected Pfizer doses next week “complicates that,” he said.
Over the next two weeks, the commonwealth is also expecting 110,500 doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, though it has not yet received emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. All of these early vaccine doses are earmarked for frontline health care workers, long-term care staff and residents, and, early next year, teachers.
With vaccine shipments trickling in, Beshear and Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, warned against people becoming complacent during the holidays next week. Both are asking people to avoid leisure travel, avoid gathering indoors with anyone outside of their household, and “avoid any large indoor gatherings” that include more than eight people, Stack said.
“If you get together with people with whom you do not live, you should assume someone in that group is infected,” Dr. Stack said bluntly. “The disease is that widespread at this time.”
They pointedly cautioned Kentuckians over the age of 65 to be steadfast in protecting themselves by avoiding gatherings of any kind indoors, especially where people aren’t wearing masks. Twenty percent of those over age 70 who contract COVID-19 have been hospitalized, and 10 percent have died. In nursing homes on Thursday, 194 more residents and 126 staff had tested positive, increasing the number of active cases in those facilities to more than 3,800.
“If you’re over 65 or [have] a significant health condition, don’t go to any indoor public space where anyone is unmasked,” Beshear said, noting that the White House categorizes those settings as “an immediate threat to your health.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 4:42 PM.
