Beshear gets booster shot. State’s declining rate of COVID cases begins to level off.
Though the prevalence of COVID-19 is still receding across Kentucky, metrics that measure the virus’ decline may be leveling off, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.
“Our cases are declining, but the rate seems to be slowing,” Beshear said in an afternoon news conference in Frankfort. Though he said he’s not yet concerned, “It does give us some pause about whether or not our decline is slowing.”
With the exception of three days in October, two of which were consecutive, the state positivity rate dropped each day last month. But in the first four days of November, the statewide rate, a leading indicator of spread, only declined once. The rate dipped below 5% on Halloween to 4.98%, rose to 5.03% on Nov. 1, and rose again on Nov. 2 to 5.05% where it stayed through Thursday, when it dipped back to 5.03%.
In an otherwise free fall since mid September, this perhaps signals the beginning of a plateau, Beshear said. Similarly, though the state is on track to report fewer cases this week than last, the margin appears to be slimmer than in weeks past. By this time last week, the state had reported 5,450 new cases, compared with this week’s 4,893 cases.
“This week’s [daily case totals] right now is tracking to be lower, but only slightly lower than last week,” he said.
The rate of decline in number of people hospitalized with COVID-19, those in intensive care units and on ventilators may too be leveling off, Beshear noted Thursday.
Those rates are “continuing to drop, which is positive, but we’re starting to kind of see a bend in the slope,” he said.
On Thursday, the state reported 1,398 new cases — 30% of which are in kids and teenagers under the age of 18 — and 30 additional deaths, including a 23-year-old and a 25-year-old, Beshear said. Across the state, 765 people are hospitalized with coronavirus (three more than Wednesday), 217 are in an ICU (15 fewer), and 133 are on a ventilator (four fewer).
As Beshear and First Lady Britainy Beshear rolled up their sleeves during the governor’s live news conference Thursday afternoon to receive their boosters, he again called for other fully-vaccinated people to do the same, especially since more vaccinated people are testing positive.
Unvaccinated Kentuckians still account for the lion’s share of new cases, hospitalizations and virus deaths. Between March 1 and Nov. 3, a little over 84% of all new cases and hospitalizations in the commonwealth were among the unvaccinated, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Of the people who’ve died from the virus in the last seven months, 85% were unvaccinated.
