A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

COVID Update: NKY still in green zone, but newest report show fewer counties are; monkeypox up a bit


By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today

The latest weekly COVID-19 Community Levels map, issued each Friday by the Kentucky Department for Public Health, saw a break in the month-long trend that had been showing weekly improvements.

The map, which is generated from data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rates counties as having a low, medium, or high community level; by whether their color is green, yellow or red.

On the Oct. 21 map, 89 of Kentucky’s 120 counties, including all of NKY, are now in the green, indicating a low community level of COVID. Twenty-seven others are yellow indicating a medium level, while four counties in eastern Kentucky are red, showing a high level.

Last week, there were 103 green counties, 16 yellow and only one in the red.

Gov. Andy Beshear continued to remind everyone to be current on their vaccinations.

“Get out there and get your booster, especially before Thanksgiving. You’re going to get together, and we never want the holidays to make people sick. The new omicron booster not only works against what we are seeing right now, but the new omicron subvariants is out there, that are hitting other countries.”

For more details on Kentucky’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, community levels, guidance and more, go to the state’s website, http://kycovid19.ky.gov/.

Monkeypox

The weekly monkeypox report from the Department for Public Health, meanwhile, showed a small rise in cases in Kentucky, rising from 63 last week to its current 65. For comparison, at the beginning of September, the statewide total was 31.

Jefferson County continues to have the most cases at 36, followed by Fayette with 9, Warren 4, Kenton 3, Boone and Christian each have had two, and one apiece in Barren, Floyd, Hardin, Hopkins, Jessamine, McCracken, Montgomery, Oldham, and Simpson counties.  64 of the 65 cases were found in men.

There have now been 27,835 monkeypox cases across the U.S., according to the CDC, along with four deaths. The worldwide total from the 2022 outbreak now stands at 75,166.


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