Kentucky coronavirus cases on the rise again. 972 new cases and 18 deaths.
Positioning Kentucky to likely have its first week of rising COVID-19 cases since early January, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 972 new cases of the virus on Thursday, along with 18 more deaths.
The number of new cases across the commonwealth have been dropping every seven days since the first week of January. On Wednesday, Beshear said Kentucky was on track for that decline to plateau, if not reverse, this week.
With two reporting days to go, Kentucky has so far confirmed 3,176 new cases this week, compared to the 4,154 tallied last week. That’s still lower than a month ago, when there were 6,237 new cases a week. At the peak of the state’s surge, in early January, 26,427 people tested positive in a week.
The positivity rate rose again slightly for the second day in a row on Thursday, to 2.99 percent — the highest since March 21. The percentage of Kentuckians testing positive has not surpassed 3 percent in almost two weeks.
Five of the deaths reported Thursday are from the state’s audit of past coronavirus deaths — an effort that has so far uncovered close to 700 previously unreported deaths.
There are 411 people hospitalized with coronavirus (two fewer from Wednesday), 92 in intensive care (18 fewer) and 45 on a ventilator, (down three).
At least 1,375,901 people — more than 30 percent of the population — have gotten their initial dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Starting on Monday, anyone 16 and older will qualify for a coronavirus vaccine in Kentucky.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 4:47 PM.
