By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Gov. Andy Beshear announced a continued decline in most of the numbers dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and that the number of Kentuckians vaccinated has reached 700,000.
During a Tuesday press briefing the Governor reported 1,080 new cases of the coronavirus. Although that was more than double Monday’s total of 509, he said it was the lowest Tuesday in four weeks. The number of positive cases since the first one was reported March 6, 2020 in Harrison County, has now reached 406,201.
Jefferson County was the only one to have more than 100 new cases with 164. The rest of the top ten counties included Fayette 77, Kenton 56, Boone 45, Hardin 36, Madison 30, Scott 28, Pike 25, Warren 24, and Johnson 22.
The state’s positivity rate, based on a seven-day rolling average, continued its decline on Tuesday, to 4.76%, which is the lowest since October 18.
The number of “Red” counties, those with a COVID incidence rate of more than 25 per 100,000 population is now down to 19. One month ago, on Feb. 2, there were 109 of Kentucky’s 120 counties in the red zone.
The number of Kentuckians hospitalized due to the coronavirus was 684 on Tuesday, down 35 from the previous day. Of them 178 were in the ICU a drop of two, and the number of a ventilator remained at 82.
There was an increase of deaths on Tuesday to 19, four more than Monday. This raises the pandemic total to 4,671.
The latest victims ranged in age from 53 to 96. Jefferson County had five deaths; Laurel and Madison counties had three; there were two in Grayson and Simpson counties; with one apiece in Boyle, Floyd, Kenton, and Rockcastle counties.
The governor announced the federal government has another increase in vaccine distribution.
“It’ll be another 700,000 nationwide, starting this next week. Of that, we’ll get probably about 8,000 more vaccines. That means through the federal programs and through what the state is getting we’re going to be north of 100,000 vaccines from now into the future. With the Johnson & Johnson batch that we are getting now, and with increases we expect, we hope to double the number of people vaccinated in just this next month alone.”
He also said that as of Tuesday morning, 711,559 Kentuckians have received at least their first vaccination.
“The vast majority of those are through our state and long-term care programs, which we had a part in running.”
