A day before Halloween, Lexington reports largest new COVID case increase in October
With Fayette County among the 68 counties in the red zone for coronavirus cases, the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department announced 143 new cases on Friday, pushing the city total over 11,000.
That is the third-highest day of new COVID-19 cases reported in Lexington since the pandemic began in March and the highest day so far in October, as the surge continues.
There have been 2,463 cases and 21 deaths in October. Lexington went from 10,000 cases to 11,000 cases in just nine days, the fastest rate of increase since early September, according to the health department.
Since the outbreak began, 11,060 cases have been reported, according to the health department.
Two new deaths also were reported on Friday, bringing Fayette County COVD-19 deaths to 97.
The health department also reported that there were 22 new cases at the University of Kentucky, bringing the school’s total to 2,411. Transylvania University had one more case, for a total of 86, and Bluegrass Community & Technical College reported three more cases, for a total of 118. Altogether, colleges account for 2,696 of the cases in Fayette County’s total.
Since the outbreak began in March, 670 people have been hospitalized in Fayette County, according to the health department data. Hospitalizations have been increasing in recent days, and the number of people in the hospital daily has climbed from 30-40 during the summer months to about 60 a day now.
As of Friday’s update, 9,474 people in Fayette County have recovered from COVID-19 since March, according to the city data.
Residents are urged to wash hands, wear masks in public and limit interactions with those outside their households.
On Thursday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced that Kentucky had 103,305 cases as the virus continues to surge statewide..
The 1,821 new cases reported Thursday made it the third-highest single-day increase in new infections. Beshear also announced 19 more deaths, bringing Kentucky’s total to 1,461.
The state had not released updated COVID totals by 5 p.m. Friday.
Thursday, the state’s positivity rate had climbed above 6 percent.
That plus the increasing cases in Fayette and the other counties triggered the “red zone” designation. Counties in the state’s critical red category have the highest incidence rates with average cases of 25 or more per 100,000 residents. Beshear is urging citizens in the red zone to limit public contact.
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Schools should switch from in-person to virtual learning; employees should work remotely when possible; residents should do curbside shopping and dining pickup; and group gatherings of any size should be postponed.
“If you are in one of those 68 counties, and most Kentuckians are, we need you to reduce your contacts as much as possible Monday through Sunday of next week,” Beshear said. “Don’t go out unless you have to,” try to do curbside shopping rather than in-person, and avoid gathering with other people, because “it’s unsafe right now.”
For Halloween on Saturday, Beshear urged families to go only in family groups, wear masks and to put candy or items out for others to pick up rather than handing the candy out or letting kids reach into a communal bowl.
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 9:49 AM.
