By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
The number of new cases of COVID-19 in Kentucky fell over the past seven days, according to the weekly report issued this week, but several other metrics, including deaths, saw an increase.
A total of 14,409 new cases were reported to state public health officials during last week, which is down from the 15,652 that were logged on August 8.
This brings to 1,506,741 the total number of positive cases in Kentucky since the first one was reported in Harrison County on April 6, 2020.
Thirty-two counties had more than 100 cases, one less than the previous week. The 10 counties that had the most were: Jefferson 1,888, Fayette 605, Hardin 406, Warren 330, Daviess 267, Kenton 258, Madison 223, Laurel 203, McCreary 186, and Harlan 174.
Kentucky’s positivity rate, which measures the ratio of positive results from all tests performed stood at 18.51% on the August 15 report. That is up 0.1% from last week and is an increase of 0.62% from two weeks ago.
There were 76 new deaths this week, compared to 67 last week and 45 in the August 1 report. The total deaths in Kentucky since the start of the pandemic now stands at 16,540, which is 205 higher than the population of Ft. Mitchell and about 260 shy of the total number of residents in Danville.
The hospital census showed a slight decrease. There were 615 Kentuckians hospitalized, compared to 623 last week. Of those currently in the hospital, 74 were in an intensive care unit and 27 on a ventilator. Both of those numbers were identical to last week.
In the weekly COVID Community Levels map released last Friday, 79 Kentucky counties were in the red, meaning a high level of COVID, down one from the previous week. Thirty were in the yellow zone, meaning a medium level, while 11 were in the green, which represents a low community level.
The Community Levels map is designed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help individuals and communities decide which prevention actions to take based on hospitalizations and cases.
For more details and guidance, based on the community level for your county, go to the state’s COVID-19 website.
