A tragedy remembered: Five years after Lexington’s first COVID case
Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history - some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
March 6, 2020: The first case of COVID-19 hit Lexington two months after the Chinese government identified the coronavirus as the cause of a flu-like outbreak.
On March 6, 2020, Lexington reported its first case of the COVID-19 virus. In just two months’ time, the virus had gone from being located in the Wu Han province of China to around the world.
On March 5, the CDC had reported 60 cases of the virus in Arizona, California, Florida, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. The next day, Kentucky confirmed its first case of COVID, a Harrison County resident, was being treated in Lexington.
“We can confirm that we have a patient that has tested presumptive positive for COVID-19 currently in isolation at UK Chandler Hospital,” UK spokesman Jay Blanton said at the time.
“Our health care team has taken every precaution and followed the appropriate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protocols to prevent exposure to other patients and caregivers.”
Two days later, Mayor Linda Gorton announced the first case of a Lexington resident getting the virus.
With the identification of the first COVID case, Gov. Andy Beshear took action, declaring a state of emergency and signing executive orders to prohibit price gouging and limiting visitation at senior care and long-term care facilities.
It would be another three days before the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic, and not until March 13, that President Donald Trump would declare a nationwide emergency.
Between March 25, 2020, and May 22, 2023, Fayette County reported 122,877 COVID cases and 724 deaths, with the majority of new cases being reported between Dec. 23, 2021, and March 3, 2022.
At its peak, Fayette County saw 1,403 new cases on Jan. 24, 2022.
Nationally, there were over 99.5 million cases of COVID reported and more than 1.1 million deaths.
At its peak, on Jan. 13, 2022, the U.S. was averaging 780,049 cases per day, more than twice the population of Fayette County at the same point in time.
Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 7:00 AM.