Amid omicron wave, KY hits highest-ever COVID-19 positivity rate of more than 20%
Kentucky started off the New Year with a record-high COVID-19 positivity rate on Sunday.
Thanks in large part to the rise of the omicron variant, more than 20% of Kentuckians who tested for COVID-19 had the virus. Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack said that 80% or more of the new cases were the variant, which he and Gov. Andy Beshear said appears to be less likely to cause severe illness.
“Omicron has not only come to the Commonwealth, it has hit us harder in terms of escalation of cases than anything we have seen to date,” Beshear said.
The state set a record for daily cases with 6,441 reported on Dec. 30, beating the previous record by nearly 700. Last week also saw the second-highest recorded COVID-19 caseload, with cases doubling from the week prior to nearly 30,000.
Beshear announced 6,441 cases and 27 deaths from Dec. 30, 5,748 cases and 28 deaths from New Year’s Eve, 4,359 cases and 26 deaths on Jan. 1, 2,767 cases and 24 deaths on Sunday, and 4,111 cases and 15 deaths this Monday. Beshear attributed the recent slight drop in cases to a reporting lag and the New Year’s holiday.
The weekly case number fell just short of a peak reached in late summer due to the delta variant -- before which case rates had cratered -- and just beat out peaks from this past winter.
Beshear remarked that the high positivity rate is particularly concerning now because more people are testing than before.
The governor added that he expects omicron, by percentage, to not cause as many people to be hospitalized as previous variants have.
Thus far, hospitalization rates have increased in recent weeks but not shot up at the same rate as some previous waves.
Beshear pointed out that rates since March of this year for cases, hospitalization and deaths from COVID-19 continue to be much higher for the unvaccinated.
More than 84% of those hospitalized and 83% of those who have died in Kentucky since March 1 of this year have been unvaccinated, per data shared at the briefing.
Beshear said 62% of Kentucky’s population has gotten at least one vaccine dose, including 74% of those 18 years or older.
With public schools opening soon, Stack urged districts to require that children wear masks, a method proven to limit the spread of the virus.
“If you open a school this week and you’re not requiring masks, you’re going to infect the entire school in two weeks,” Stack said. “This virus is like measles. Measles has been the most contagious known viral infection on the planet Earth for a very long time, and the only comparison that we can make for Omicron that seems even remotely apropos, is that it’s like Measles.”
Stack also strongly encouraged that schools use ‘test to stay’ programs, which allow families of students who may have been exposed to COVID-19 at school have their children tested for COVID-19 each morning before school using a rapid COVID test.
