49 deaths make Wednesday the 4th-deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kentucky
Gov. Andy Beshear announced 3,433 new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky on Wednesday, as well as 49 additional virus-related deaths.
The new daily deaths tally makes Wednesday the fourth-deadliest day since the start of the pandemic. The state has now reported a total of 3,243 deaths and 334,321 cases of the coronavirus.
The statewide positivity rate has dipped slightly to 11.29 percent. The “plateauing” positivity rate has been below 12 percent for five consecutive days, Beshear noted, calling it “great news.”
There are 1,678 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (45 more than were hospitalized on Tuesday), including 399 in intensive care (43 fewer) and 205 on ventilators (three fewer).
There were 42 more coronavirus cases reported among nursing home residents and 46 among nursing home staff, bringing the total number of active cases in those facilities to 1,512.
A total of 232,127 doses of vaccine to protect against COVID-19 have been administered across the state — 10,687 of which were given between Tuesday and the end of the day Wednesday. On Tuesday, Beshear sent a letter requesting that Operation Warp Speed (the vaccine rollout program under former President Donald Trump) “immediately double the allocation” of doses it sends Kentucky each week.
For at least the last seven days, the number of doses the state administers has outpaced the amount its receiving from the federal government. The severity of this problem will only grow in the coming weeks, Beshear said, as the state works with Kroger to set up regional high-volume drive-thru vaccination sites in February that will have the capacity to immunize thousands of people each day.
“Our ability to administer vaccinations is already exceeding the supply we are receiving from Operation Warp Speed,” Beshear wrote in his Jan. 19 letter. “At the same time, we are putting in place the infrastructure to increase our administration of vaccines substantially in the weeks ahead.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Beshear was tapped by the National Governors Association to help lead a bipartisan task force that will guide states toward economic recovery throughout the pandemic. He will co-chair the NGA’s Economic Recovery and Revitalization task force alongside South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican.
Beshear, a Democrat, said he was “honored and humbled to be asked by the NGA to work on this crucially important issue.”
This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 4:49 PM.
