Kentucky sees drop in COVID cases for third straight week. ‘Exactly what we want to see’
Coming off its third consecutive week of declining COVID-19 cases, and with all other coronavirus metrics trending downward, Gov. Andy Beshear said Kentucky should be nearly clear of the omicron surge by mid March.
“Certainly the trajectory is exactly what we want to see: steadily, if not quickly dropping,” the governor said in a Monday news conference. “If these trends continue, we believe Kentucky will move out of the red and into the orange, or even the yellow, conservatively, by March 14.”
The commonwealth has used a color-coded incidence rate map throughout the pandemic to show levels of virus in each county: red indicates the highest level of community spread (more than 25 cases per 100,000 people), followed by orange and then yellow and green, the lowest.
If this projection plays out over the next month, Beshear said his office will publish “new guidance” that provides “significantly more flexibility” on how residents, schools and businesses should respond to COVID-19. He did not offer specifics on the updated guidance, but did say it also would apply to state government.
“Our goal would also be able to look at our practices in state government and see what is or isn’t necessary at or around that time,” Beshear said.
Though Beshear’s executive authority to enact statewide measures to slow spread of the virus was revoked by the Republican-led legislature in September, the Kentucky Department for Public Health still provides recommendations. One of those recommendations, for instance, calls for continued universal masking of students over the age of 2 in K-12 schools.
Over the weekend, Kentucky reported 6,025 new COVID-19 cases and 84 deaths, including a 37-year-old woman in Bell County, a 48-year-old man in Laurel County, a 39-year-old woman in Metcalfe County, and an 18-year-old man in Bullitt County.
The statewide rate of positive tests dropped from just over 20% on Friday to 17.93% on Monday. Though last week was the third-straight week of declining cases in the omicron surge, with 35,951 new cases, it was still the sixth-highest week overall, Beshear said.
Coronavirus-related hospitalizations also are dropping. By Monday, hospitals were treating 1,750 patients with COVID-19, down from 1,859 on Sunday. There are 322 people in intensive care units (14 fewer), and 162 on ventilators (10 fewer).
Though demand for vaccinations has waned in recent weeks, it picked back up over the weekend, Beshear said: 4,307 people got a first dose, 5,461 got a second, and 7,351 got a third dose. Just over 56% of the state population is fully vaccinated (66% of adults), and 24% of residents (30% of adults) have received a booster, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health.
