By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
The COVID Community Level map released on Friday shows more counties in the medium or high categories, and although Gov. Andy Beshear says Kentucky may have seen another plateau or even a decline in new cases, he still urges everyone to be cautious and get vaccinated.
“While most of our state is green or yellow, there are red counties,” he said. “We need to thoughtful if we are traveling to or doing business in red counties, on what steps we take.”
Beshear noted that hospitalizations have ticked up a little bit, “but don’t seem to be in any type of regular increase, and thankfully, the use of ICUs and ventilators are still down.”
His advice: “The best thing everybody can do is get vaccinated. We are still seeing huge advantages in terms of cases, in terms of overall outcomes if you are vaccinated, versus not vaccinated.”
According to the map, a copy of which accompanies this story, 22 of Kentucky’s 120 counties are now in the red (high) category, 36 are yellow (medium), leaving just over half, 62, with a green (low) community level for COVID-19.
Beshear added, “Please, if you haven’t gotten vaccinated, if you haven’t gotten your first booster, if you’re over 50 and haven’t gotten your second booster, go out and get it.”
The latest weekly COVID report, issued on June 20, shows since the pandemic began in March 2020, Kentucky has had 1,388,211 cases reported to state public health officials, with 16,114 deaths.
The hospital census at that time showed 369 Kentuckians hospitalized. Of them, 48 were in the intensive care unit and 25 were on a ventilator. The positivity rate, which is the ratio of total tests reported to the number of cases was 12.45%.
Fifteen counties had over 100 new cases, according to the June 20 report. Jefferson reported 1,608, Fayette 749. Warren 243. Hardin 237. Kenton 222. Boone 187. Madison 178. Bullitt 147. Daviess 142. McCracken 131. Boyd 120. Campbell 114. Christian and Scott 108, and Oldham 106.
Updated figures are expected to be released late Monday afternoon.
