4,836 new Kentucky COVID-19 cases, the third-highest day of the pandemic
Cementing Kentucky’s eighth-consecutive week of escalating COVID-19 cases, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 4,836 new cases of the virus on Thursday — the third highest single-day increase since the pandemic began.
The rate of Kentuckians testing positive also continues to climb, surpassing the previous record of 12.45% earlier this week and reaching 12.75% on Thursday. Twenty-six percent of the new daily cases are in children and teenagers ages 18 and younger. The incidence rate for kids ages 10-19 is 87.53 per 100,000 people, Beshear said.
“This is the most dangerous time, especially if you’re unvaccinated, that we have seen in this pandemic,” he said in a short video.
Coronavirus hospitalizations are steeply accelerating. Over the last week, an additional 337 people were admitted to hospitals with COVID-19. There were 1,708 people hospitalized across the commonwealth on Thursday — an increase of 50 from Wednesday — while 481 were being treated in intensive care units (up 15) and 242 were on a ventilator (up 13).
At the rate new patients were admitted over the last seven days, Kentucky will surpass its previous hospitalization peak — 1,817 on December 17 — this weekend. Already this week, the state set a new record for coronavirus patients in ICUs. Nearly 67% of the state’s inpatient hospital beds are currently occupied, as are 66% of ICU beds, though it wasn’t immediately clear if all of the remaining beds are staffed.
Earlier on Thursday, the governor again warned that Kentucky’s ability to staff hospital beds is “reaching a critical point.”
“We are going to be out of hospital capacity very, very soon,” he said.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 6:41 PM.
