Beshear: Kentucky bracing for omicron COVID-19 surge. Tornado death toll at 76.
With a surge in COVID-19 cases likely imminent now that the highly contagious omicron variant has been confirmed in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear announced 1,215 new cases on Monday and 32 deaths.
The deaths include a 29-year-old woman in Franklin County and a 34-year-old man in Martin County. Over the weekend, the state reported 4,106 new cases of the virus and 61 deaths.
Though the commonwealth’s weekly case count has leveled off in the last three weeks, that is likely to change with the arrival of omicron, the most contagious coronavirus variant yet. Kentucky confirmed its first cases of the omicron variant on Friday in Fayette, Jefferson, Kenton and Campbell counties, but it is “probably in every county by now,” Beshear said in a news update on Monday.
On Saturday, Beshear recommended that schools and workplaces require universal masking.
“This thing is going to spread so fast that any school that is not doing mandatory masking, any business that is not having their folks wear masks could see entire schools, entire shifts get infected very, very quickly,” the governor said, warning that the variant could “disrupt everything we’ve worked so hard to get back up and going.”
Omicron is not only the most contagious COVID-19 variant yet, it’s “probably one of the most transmissible or contagious infections we’ve had in the last century at least,” Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack said.
For reference, people with the flu may infect one to two people, Stack said. Someone with the delta variant could easily infect five other people. But with omicron, “it may be that one person may infect up to 18 or 20 people,” he said.
So, despite the “leveling out” in cases and positivity rate over the last three weeks, as omicron is predicted to spread like wildfire, “case numbers will go up,” Beshear said.
After dipping below 9% in early December, the positivity rate on Sunday hit 9.06%. On Monday, it was 9.20%. There are 1,206 people hospitalized with coronavirus, 325 in intensive care units, and 176 breathing on a ventilator.
Just over half — 54% — of Kentuckians and 64% of adults are fully vaccinated, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Over the weekend, 10,351 people got a first dose of the vaccine and 32,719 received a booster. Eighteen percent of residents have received a booster.
Tornado update
As much of Western Kentucky continues to dig out from heaps of debris left in the wake of deadly tornadoes, Beshear on Monday said the state’s official death count stands at 76. That’s two fewer than his office reported Saturday. Beshear said three deaths originally reported in Dawson Springs were being counted in death tallies in both Caldwell and Hopkins counties. Removing those duplicates dropped the death toll to 75. Another employee at the Mayfield candle factory died over the weekend of their injuries, he said, lifting the total to 76, and lifting the total number of Graves County residents who died to 22.
This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 5:00 PM.
