Kentucky’s post-holiday COVID-19 spike continues with 2,085 new cases, 21 deaths
Coming off a record-breaking week for new infections, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 2,085 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday in Kentucky and 21 more deaths, as the post-holiday spike continues.
The state reported an all-time high of 26,799 new cases last week — a bump Beshear attributed directly to Christmas gatherings. A total of 305,707 cases have been confirmed in the state, and 2,922 people have died.
Before the holiday season, Kentucky had blunted its third wave of infection, the governor said Monday during a live update. “But holiday gatherings appear to have significantly increased the spread of the coronavirus.”
All but one of Kentucky’s 120 counties is back in the “red zone,” due to critical levels of community spread. The rate of people testing positive is at 12.35 percent. January so far has logged the highest positivity rate of any other month.
On Sunday, the state public health commissioner’s house was vandalized.
The words “COVID is PCR fraud,” were spray-painted on the mailbox at Dr. Steven Stack’s Lexington home. PCR refers to the nasal swab test used to detect coronavirus.
Beshear sharply rebuked the vandalism on Monday, telling “the cowards out there who did it, we’re working to find you. It is not acceptable.”
The number of coronavirus hospitalizations from Sunday into Monday remained relatively level. At least 1,709 people are hospitalized with the novel coronavirus statewide (four fewer than Sunday), 381 of whom are in intensive care (one more) and 207 are on ventilators (five fewer).
In long-term care facilities, there are 121 new cases among residents and 132 among staff, for a total of at least 1,920 active cases. Though Kentucky has been giving out doses of the vaccine for a month, only 23 percent of the 93,600 doses the state has received for staff and residents in nursing homes have been administered.
Health care providers and local health departments continue distributing doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines. By Monday, at least 130,355 doses had been given out. Kentucky has administered roughly 50 percent of the total doses it has received. At this point, 2.9 percent of the state population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.
At K-12 schools, many of which resumed classes last week, 1,674 additional students and 162 staff have tested positive. Last week, 3,212 students and 774 staff were in quarantine from virus exposure, Beshear said.
Following its third-highest week for new coronavirus cases, Lexington on Monday reported 384 new infections over the weekend and 183 new on Monday. If this pace continues, the city is on track for a record-breaking January.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 4:41 PM.
